Gundam Seed: Destiny Altered
by RosenDrache
Summary: A retelling of GSD. Rated T for language, violence. Primary pairing: SxS. UPDATED - NOW COMPLETE! The year is Cosmic Era 75. After almost four years of uneasy peace, a new war once again breaks. Young rookie Shinn Asuka enters the battlefield, and will find his life changed forever...
1. Phase 01: Scars that Won

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **This is the second attempt I shall make at a rewrite addressing what I feel were flaws with _Gundam Seed Destiny_.

I decided to start over because some of the flaws in my previous attempt were becoming a hindrance, especially with regards to one of the same issues Destiny had, which was balancing its overlarge cast. The first couple of chapters will not really change all that much, but Chapter 4 and onwards will attempt to address this issue here as well as increase the focus on Shinn in the first few chapters. Hopefully this second version will have more success.

As before, this particular version of _Gundam Seed Destiny _omits the initial Gundamjack, and takes place in the same continuity as _An Alternate Fate._

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><p><strong>PHASE 01: Scars That Won't Heal<strong>

**February 14th, Cosmic Era 75; Lagrange Point 4 ZAFT Arsenal colony Armory One**

Located far from the 119 colonies that make up the PLANT homeland, the steel-and-glass hourglass-shaped colony Armory One had first been constructed in CE 72 as a military arsenal. Since then, it had served as the primary testing ground and development facility for all new technologies created by Martius Arsenals and Maius Military Industries, the primary weapons manufacturers of the PLANTs, who developed the vehicles, weapons and mobile suits that equipped ZAFT, the nation's militia.

The upper half of the colony was the civilian district, which held housing and facilities for its residents, primarily the employees who worked in the colony and their families as a large portion of its military population. The heavily-guarded lower half held the arsenal itself and the colony's substantial military facilities and defense forces. It was here that, in CE 74, a complete restructuring and overhaul of ZAFT's mobile weapons forces had been undertaken, under the project name "New Millennium". And in the most heavily-armed section of the base, one could see the crown jewel of the New Millennium Project, soon to be the flagship of ZAFT's entire military force: a sleek, dark-gray warship with sharp, angular lines and broad, swept-back wings, although these were currently folded along its side: The assault carrier LHM-BB01 _Minerva_, the first new battleship to be launched, two days hence, since the end of the Bloody Valentine War three and a half years earlier. Cannons bristled along its entire upper side, facing both to the bow and stern. Conceptually a descendant of the Alliance battleship _Archangel_ as well as the previous war's famous _Eternal_, it combined the best aspects of both into a fast, heavily-armed and armored battleship, the finest such craft ZAFT had ever created.

Throughout Armory One, preparations continued at a frantic pace. the upcoming launch of the new vessel. On the base, a military jeep was moving rather swiftly through the compound. In the passenger's seat, Lunamaria Hawke was looking around as suddenly, a GINN stepped out in front of them. Vino Dupré, her crewmate, was driving, and he swerved out of the mobile suit's way. "What the hell? This is a mess!" She complained, somewhat angrily. She looked back at the mobile suit, an aging relic of the Bloody Valentine War. Four years later, nearly every GINN and CGUE had long-since been retired, only a scant few serving in the armed forces - primarily among the defense forces of the PLANTs themselves. Since 72 they had been almost entirely replaced by the marginally newer GuAIZ and its mass-produced equivalent, the GuAIZ-R, both significantly superior machines. And within another year or two, even the GuAIZ would soon follow as the New Millennium Project reached completion.

-"It can't be helped. It's been a while since we've done anything like this." Vino replied. "Almost everybody here's a rookie, just like us. But all it means is the _Minerva_'s nearly ready to launch."

-"I guess." Luna replied. Whereas Vino was part of the ship's maintenance crew Luna was a pilot. Moreover her wine-red uniform, customized with a pink miniskirt rather than the usual knee-length skirt, indicated that she was a graduate of the PLANTs' military academy, and had graduated within the top ten percent of her class. "I wonder if it's true about us getting assigned to lunar orbit...and where's Shinn anyway?"

Vino opened his mouth to reply, when the two teens heard the dull, throaty roar of a jet engine, as a small, blue-and-white fighter soared past above them. Behind it were two peculiar-looking craft, dull-grey in color, which almost looked like the upper and lower bodies of a mobile suit - which is exactly what they were.

"There he is." Vino said, pointing above at the three craft. "He was scheduled for some final flight and combat tests on the Impulse before it was loaded on the _Minerva_." As he spoke, the three craft began to line up, with the fighter in the middle and the other two in front and behind. As Vino and Luna watched, the fighter - the Core Splendor - folded in on itself, and the two other modules enclosed it and deployed, forming a single mobile suit, which then landed not far from them.

The ZGMF-X56S Impulse Gundam was, like the _Minerva_, the pinnacle of the New Millennium Project. Its experimental Core Block System theoretically allowed it to if need be modify its equipment and replace damaged parts on the fly, during a battle, making it possibly the most versatile mobile suit ever created.  
>The GINN with which Lunamaria had nearly collided earlier turned as the Impulse's Variable Phase Shift Armor shimmered, turning from grey to gleaming blue and white, and opened fire with its machine gun. In the Impulse's cockpit, Shinn saw the GINN - an unmanned aggressor unit, controlled remotely by technicians on the ground - and counterattacked. Though the GINN's machine gun was harmless against the Impulse's armor, he blocked with its shield, then drew one of a pair of beam sabers stored on the Impulse's hips and drove it deep into the GINN's belly, where the cockpit is located in most mobile suits. The GINN shut down.<p>

As the Impulse continued through its combat tests, Vino and Luna turned away and headed back towards the ship. After close-combat, Shinn continued with anti-aircraft training, against inexpensive drones simulating enemy fighters and helicopters, which he shot down with the beam rifle. Once the exercises were complete, the Impulse turned and began walking back towards the _Minerva._

Like Lunamaria as well as their mutual friend Rey Za Burrel, Shinn was a Red Coat academy graduate and mobile suit pilot. Shinn and Lunamaria were classmates at the academy, and had graduated second and third in their class respectively. They were friends, and had known each other for quite a long time. Once he reached the ship's hangar he maneuvered the Impulse into its berth and shut the mobile suit down. As Shinn left the cockpit, the tall, taciturn Rey was waiting for him.

"Good work out there, Shinn." Rey said.

"Thanks, Rey." The slightly younger Shinn replied. They were a curious pair, these two. Rey had been the top student in their academy class. Quiet, thoughtful, and intelligent, the blue-eyed and blond Rey was level-headed and even-tempered. By contrast, the black-haired Shinn was brash, impulsive, hot-headed and impatient, constantly questioning his instructors. And yet, they were inseparable.

Beyond his curious friendship with Rey, Shinn was unusual in a number of ways. Whereas Rey and Luna had been born in the PLANTs, Shinn had emigrated from Orb during the war, shortly after that country's invasion by the Alliance. He didn't talk much about his life on Earth, and people had quickly learned not to ask. Volatile-tempered, he was also a ferocious critic of Orb and the Athhas.  
>But the most unusual thing about Shinn Asuka was a pink mobile phone he carried around everywhere, though he never called anyone with it and nobody knew its number. As he stepped away from the Impulse, Shinn withdrew the phone from a pocket and opened it, his expression thoughtful.<p>

-"You know, there's no point carrying that thing around if you never use it." a voice said from behind. Yolant Kent, a good friend of his and like Vino a member of the ship's maintenance crew, walked past Shinn. The latter shot him an ugly look then, flipping the phone shut and slipping it into his pocket, left the hangar.

**United Orb Emirates, Kaguya Mass Driver/Spaceport**

The Kaguya Mass Driver - destroyed in C.E. 71 - had been painstakingly rebuilt in the years since the war's end. Today, for the first time, the spaceport was operational again, and a shuttle stood poised on the launch ramp, waiting to take off. Although a sizable crowd stood at the boarding ramp, only a few people were boarding.

The first was Johan Lindemann of the Kingdom of Scandinavia, followed by Setiawan Patel of the Equatorial Union. The elderly Lindemann had achieved renown as one of the architects of the Treaty of Junius Seven, which had ended the Bloody Valentine War two and a half years earlier. The third was Vice-President Brennan Marshall of the Eurasian Federation, a handsome man in his late-thirties. President Baum himself would normally attend, but discussions with President Copeland, his opposite number in the Atlantic Federation, had required his attention. The Eurasian Federation under the Baum administration had progressed significantly in recent years, both in terms of addressing the damage caused by the war - in particular the massive power crisis that had gripped the nation in the wake of ZAFT's Operation Uroboros, which had dropped the Neutron Jammers, eliminating the use of nuclear powerplants that were the primary source of power at the time - and with regards to freeing itself from the political and ideological grip of Blue Cosmos.

Walking next to him was a young woman wearing a maroon jacket and suit pants over a white blouse. The dark-gold trim around the jacket's collar identified her as the Chief Representative of the United Orb Emirates, and her blonde hair and golden eyes made Cagalli Yula Athha fairly easy to recognize. Cagalli was speaking with Marshall, a man she got along well with, but she remained preoccupied. The reason for the gathering of so many disparate officials was a simple, if grim one: They were a Memorial Delegation whose intent was to visit the ruins, in orbit around the Debris Belt, of Junius Seven, and pay their respects to the 243,721 innocent civilians who had died there; the Bloody Valentine Tragedy, a massacre that had sparked a bloody, world-wide war when an Atlantic Federation carrier had fired a one-megaton nuclear warhead at the colony, obliterating it and killing its entire population.

Since then, the PLANTs had sent a memorial delegation to the site every year until CE 73, when newly-elected President Baum, in an unprecedented gesture, had offered to host a joint memorial delegation composed of representatives from all nations of Earth. Unsurprisingly the Atlantic Federation had declined, as well as the Republic of East Asia. Both governments remained strongly anti-Coordinator in stance, having not mirrored Eurasia's more tolerant stance and move towards moderation and cooperation with their neighbors in space. This year, Orb was hosting the memorial delegation - it had been Cagalli's idea that the PLANTs, Eurasia, and Orb take it in turn year after year to host the delegation. The shuttle would launch and make a short stop at Orb's geosynchronous battle station _Ame-no-Mihashira_, where it would pick up a small escort of mobile suits led by Alex Dino, Cagalli's bodyguard and a Major in Orb's Defense Forces. Originally designed as part of an orbital elevator, construction had halted at the outbreak of the Bloody Valentine War, and the incomplete station had been converted into a military fortress, which housed Orb's small but efficient space force.

Cagalli thought of Alex, and almost smiled when she thought of what he'd say about her attire._ 'Probably he would say that I should've worn a dress.'_ she mused.  
>It occurred to her, as it usually did, that Alex had insisted on accompanying her every year that the memorial delegation went to the site. He never gave a real reason beyond it being his job as a bodyguard, but Cagalli she thought she knew better; beyond concern for her own safety, he had deeply personal reasons for wanting to go, having himself lost family in the Bloody Valentine.<br>But this was not what preoccupied her at the moment. She was much more concerned about Orb's own fragile political situation; In the wake of the nation's invasion by the Earth Alliance, many of its residents had fled to the PLANTs. Of those immigrants, large numbers had since returned, but many had not and instead had found work in their new home, some of them in technological and military fields.

As a result, the Atlantic Federation was accusing Orb of illegally providing military aid to the PLANTs. As she thought of this, she glanced back at the final member of the delegation: PLANT Supreme Council Chairman Gilbert Durendal. A tall, darkly handsome man of thirty-five with a background in genetic engineering, Gilbert Durendal belonged to the same party as the late Siegel Clyne, and had publicly promised to uphold the late Chairman Clyne's ideals. Nonetheless, he had also spearheaded a recent restructuring of ZAFT, the PLANTs' militia, under the New Millennium Project. She wondered what he would say if she were to raise her concerns._ 'Perhaps I'll see about speaking to him after the memorial ceremony'_ Cagalli thought as she walked up the gangway into her personal shuttle.

She seated herself near the front, and glanced out the window at the people gathered below. She soon spotted Unato Ema Seiran, who had replaced her uncle Homura as Prime Minister, and his son Yuna Roma, like his father one of the senior members of the Council of Emirs. The Seirans were one of Orb's noble families, and strongly supportive of the Atlantic Federation. Privately, Cagalli suspected they had ties to Blue Cosmos, but these suspicions were her own and she had no evidence. The two of them, she was pleased to see, looked uncomfortable next to the taller figure of Rondo Mina Sahaku, who was the leader of Orb's small but efficient military and had significant influence in the nation's government. Once an enemy of her father's, Mina had, to Cagalli's surprise, proven to be an invaluable ally whose loyalty was without question. The group left, and soon afterwards the shuttle began its takeoff.

**Earth Orbit  
>Observation satellite <strong>**_Gagarin-II_**

One of the only facilities maintained by the PLANTs in Earth Orbit was an enormous satellite that had once served as a staging point for ZAFT's invasion fleets during Operation Uroboros. Now, its purpose was primarily as a long-range space observation satellite.

"What?" said one of the satellite's operation managers. "That can't be right!" The operator to whom he was speaking nodded.

-"I thought so too, but I checked it several times; look, this is the latest scan; this is from two hours ago. And this is every scan of the orbit since 73. It's definitely decayed, and it's continuing to do so."

-"But that's impossible; Junius Seven is supposed to be fixed in a stable orbit. If it's decayed...We have to contact the PLANTs, right away."

When the news of Junius Seven's orbit decay reached the PLANTs, the reaction was panic. In Durendal's absence, Louise Leitner and Ali Kasim, the Legislative and Judicial leaders of the PLANT government, took charge. "Something has to be done; This is a serious situation." Said the former.

-"How can we be sure of this information?" asked the more cautious Kasim.

-"The _Gagarin-II_ observatory has reverified this information." Said a third voice. "I have asked our own observation facilities at Aprilius, and they have confirmed _Gagarin-II_'s report." The speaker was Ezalia Joule, once a member of the National Defense Committee and the strongest supporter of the late Patrick Zala. A specialist in aeronautical engineering, she and her son Yzak had both been arrested following the end of the Bloody Valentine War and prosecuted. In a controversial decision, both were pardoned by Gilbert Durendal following his election along with a few others, and Ezalia was subsequently reelected to the Supreme Council as chairwoman of the National Defense Committee. "We can therefore confirm they are correct. Which begs the question of how this happened?"

-"Ultimately, we must contact Chairman Durendal. The memorial delegation must be warned." answered Kasim. "I also think that the people need to be advised." Kasim said.

-"The nations of Earth have to be warned as well." Eileen Canaver, the chairwoman of the Diplomatic Committee, interrupted, with a sidelong glance at Ezalia. The two women, it was well-known, did not like each other. "We need to send messages to their governments advising them of the situation. Inform them that the PLANTs will take every measure possible to avert the worst-case scenario. Of course, we also need to decide what steps should be taken to prevent the fall of Junius Seven to Earth."

-"Destroy it." Ezalia said flatly, causing general consternation. "Unfortunately there is no other option. We can't stop its motion or reverse it, it's far too large."  
>There were a few moments' silence, then a dull murmur of assent. Ezalia continued. "Very well. I will dispatch the <em>Voltaire<em> and _Rousseau_ with the proper equipment, along with a couple of additional vessels for support."

-"Aren't those your son's ships, Chairwoman Joule?" Leitner asked pointedly.

-"They are, Chairwoman Leitner." Ezalia acknowledged. "Or rather, the _Voltaire_ and _Rousseau _were commanded by Yzak. More to the point, they are widely considered to be the best we have. In the meantime, I will take steps to contact Chairman Durendal."

- "Good." Canaver replied. "For my part, I will draft and send messages to the governments of the Atlantic and Eurasian Federations, as well as the other nations."

Soon afterwards, the Council adjourned. Returning to her offices, Ezalia immediately set about attempting to contact Durendal in Orb, hoping to catch them before the shuttle took off. It took time, and when she finally reached someone she learned it was too late. The shuttle had already taken off. She immediately had Armory One contacted and spoke to the base's military commander.  
>"Commander, I am ordering an immediate emergency launch of the <em>Minerva<em>."

-"Wha..." The officer stammered. "But...the ship isn't ready! We still have two days, its mobile suits and pilots are not all yet on board, and..."

-"An emergency situation has emerged, and the memorial delegation shuttle could be in serious jeopardy. I need not remind you that it is carrying, among others, Supreme Council Chairman Durendal." The officer did not reply, too stunned by the enormity of that pronouncement. "Additional information will be relayed to you, and we are dispatching ships from the homeland. However, the _Minerva_ is the fastest ship we have ever built, possibly the fastest anyone has ever built. From L4, it can reach the site sooner than ships we could send from here at L5."

-"I understand ma'am, but as I said, to launch now, the ship would have to leave at less than its full MS capacity."

-"There is no other option, Commander. And in any case, that was a _direct order._"

-"Yes ma'am. I understand."

Ezalia Joule's orders were relayed quickly throughout the base, and preparations intensified to prep ZAFT's newest carrier for launch ASAP. Meanwhile onboard the _Minerva_, the bridge door opened, and the entire bridge crew stood at attention as an officer in a white coat, the black collar of his uniform trimmed with gold, entered. Tight-lipped and frowning, he had medium-length silver-white hair, hard blue eyes, and a long, thin scar across his face that did not detract from his appearance.

"Sit the hell down." Yzak Joule ordered irritably as he took his place in the Captain's chair of the _Minerva_. Arthur Trine, the _Minerva_'s executive officer, looked taken aback at the abruptness of the order, but obeyed. "What's our status?"

-"We have six mobile suits currently on board, and most of the crew is accounted for. Unfortunately, we're short a couple of pilots due to injuries, but replacements are scheduled to arrive tomorrow, along with additional mobile suits." Arthur read off.

-"Fuck that." Yzak said flatly. "I'm ordering you to launch the _Minerva_ immediately." Arthur looked aghast.

-"But Sir..."

-"That order comes directly from the Supreme Council. We're headed to the Debris Belt, where we will intercept the memorial delegation shuttle, then rendezvous with the _Voltaire, Rousseau_, and two additional ships. Their objective: the destruction of Junius Seven, before the damn thing falls to Earth."

Several seconds' complete silence greeted that statement. Then Arthur started and turned back to his console.  
>-"Huh, right. <em>Minerva<em>, begin launch sequence. The ship is now entering combat status. Prepare for emergency launch." A hatch opened underneath the ship, and a transmission from Armory One's spaceport came in.

"As of this moment, classification code LHM-BB01 _Minerva_ is validated. Confirming call sign, Sierra Antares One. Emergency launch sequence is under way; damage control, remain on standby. _Minerva_ connected to descent lift. Begin descent." As the transmission ended, the ship began slowly sliding downwards on its lift, out towards the exterior of the colony.

"Start the engines." Yzak ordered as the ship reached the outside. "Go to Condition Red. The _Minerva_ is taking off."

-"_Minerva_, taking off! Engines to maximum." Arthur ordered as the ship's wings spread open, and ZAFT's newest battleship began its maiden voyage. "Condition Red in effect. Pilots to briefing room at once. I repeat, the _Minerva_ is taking off, Condition Red is in effect. Pilots to briefing room at once."

The announcement came as Lunamaria, Shinn, and Rey were wondering the reason for the ship's sudden, premature departure. All three of them immediately stood and headed to the ship's ready room, where they changed into their normal suits, then headed to the adjacent briefing room. They had been seated for only a few moments when Yzak strode into the room, still in full uniform.  
>There was some uneasiness among the pilots, other than the impassive Rey. Most eyes were focused on Yzak, their CO; though the name of Yzak Joule was legendary among the younger recruits, none of them knew him beyond his reputation, which was not the best. However, when he began to speak, everyone listened.<p>

"As I'm sure you're all aware, this ship has launched earlier than anticipated, and her launching ceremony has not even been held yet. The reason is that we have been given an urgent and extremely important mission: The recovery of the memorial delegation shuttle, which was to visit the ruins of Junius Seven. And the destruction of Junius Seven itself."  
>Yzak waited for a few instants, as shocked whispers erupted between some of the <em>Minerva<em>'s pilots. Then he continued.  
>"The reason is that our observation facilities at home and in Earth orbit have detected an oscillation in Junius Seven's orbit: It's falling, and unless we do something, it will fall on Earth. We will rendezvous with the Hawkins Team's <em>Lemaître<em> and _Montesquieu_, as well as the _Voltaire_ and _Rousseau_; they are carrying Meteor Breakers, which will be used to break apart the debris before it enters the atmosphere. Our job is to support them. Ideally, we would also want to intercept the shuttle before its arrival at the site, but either way our primary objective is to find the damn thing. I want every pilot on five-minute standby at your machines. Dismissed!"

**Debris Belt - Earth Orbit  
>Junius Seven<strong>

"Solar wind velocity is steady; flare level S3, estimated particle arrival 30 seconds." The broadcast came from one of a multitude of small, nimble mobile pods that swarmed over the remains of what had once been half of Junius Seven - the remaining debris of the colony. These pods were currently installing sizable electronic devices at numerous locations throughout the colony, many of which were already in place.

-"Hurry up," ordered their commander. A man named Kotomine Sato, he was the leader of several teams of GINN High-Maneuver Type-IIs that were currently at the colony. Once a soldier of ZAFT, he and his men had disappeared following the end of the Bloody Valentine War. "How's Unit 9 looking?"

-"Just about ready, sir." replied the one installing the final flare motor. "Particle arrival imminent. Beginning countdown to flare motor activation."

A few seconds later, the hundreds of newly-installed flare motors activated, aggravating still further the oscillation they had already caused and precipitating Junius Seven on its fatal course towards Earth. "Allen...Christine..." Sato muttered, glancing at the photographs taped in his cockpit. "We'll be reunited after this."  
>He turned towards the falling colony and saluted.<br>"Now, FALL!" He yelled as he saw the colony move, "Our great tombstone! On a world that has forgotten the voices of sorrow, that closes its eyes to reality and wallows in deceit! The hour of reckoning is at hand!"

Soon, he would have his revenge..


	2. Phase 02: Stardust Battlefield

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **Okay, so Chapter 2 I've basically left untouched except for a few details. As before, the story picks up with the Junius Seven drop operation and is a little closer to its animated equivalent, paralleling Phases 5-6.

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><p><strong>PHASE 02: Stardust Battlefield<strong>

**LHM-BB01 ****_Minerva  
><em>****En route to the Debris Belt/Junius Seven**

Yzak sat in the bridge, having ordered all machines prepped for combat, including his own. However, his primary preoccupation right now was the key part of their orders: To locate the memorial delegation shuttle.  
>"Bart, I want you to let me know as soon as you've spotted the shuttle."<p>

-"Yes, sir." Came the answer from Bart Heim, whose responsibility it was to monitor the ship's extensive array of sensors. Yzak next addressed Abigail Windsor, who operated the ship's communications and coordinated with its mobile suits.

-"Are the mobile suits ready?"

-"Yes, sir."

-"Good." He said. The _Minerva_ had a sizable hangar, but at that moment carried only six machines: Two mass-production model ZGMF-601R GuAIZ-R mobile suits, and the experimental ZGMF-X56S Impulse. The other three were ZGMF-1000 ZAKUs, a trial pre-production mobile suit developed as a replacement for the GuAIZ series as part of the New Millennium Project. Barely off the assembly lines, so far only a few dozen had been produced, issued to unit commanders to test the viability of deployment in the field, and none had seen real action yet. One of them was his own, two-tone blue machine. The other two were piloted by Rey Za Burrel and Lunamaria Hawke.

Everyone on board the ship was nervous about their assignment, but none moreso than Yzak himself. While their orders were straightforward enough, he couldn't shake a bad feeling that they were headed for trouble. And the involvement of a civilian shuttle only compounded his trouble; It was too uncomfortably familiar. The only good thing is that the Hahnenfuss Team - what had, until his reassignment, been the Joule Team, which he had left in the capable hands of his old friend Dearka Elsman along with the more level-headed Shiho, who would take overall command of the ships while Dearka led the mobile suit teams - was also en route.

They were the best ZAFT had to offer. And Yzak had a bad feeling that they would need the very best...

**The Debris Belt - near Junius Seven**

The shuttle had left _Ame-no-Mihashira_ on schedule, and was on its way through the inner edge of the Debris Belt - the ring of rock, metal and debris, castoffs from the construction of the various colonies in the earth-sphere, that orbited the planet midway between the planet and its moon.  
>Escorting it were five mobile suits - new-model MVF-M11C Murasame variable MS, first fielded by Orb the previous year. Four of them bore the same white-and-black paint scheme as the venerable M1 Astray, the standard color for nearly all Orb mobile suits. The lead unit was red and black, with yellow trimming in lieu of the normal burnt-orange. Its pilot was Alex Dino, a veteran mobile suit pilot who had fought in the Bloody Valentine War, and who now served as Cagalli's personal bodyguard.<p>

The journey so far had been uneventful, as usual. The shuttle had had to skirt the edge of the Debris Belt to avoid collisions, but they always did so before turning inward towards Junius Seven. He felt a shiver at the thought of the place, a place of desolation and indescribable tragedy. Even now, five years later, it seemed like the memory of what had happened haunted the remains. As the convoy progressed Junius Seven came into view, and almost immediately Alex knew something was wrong.

"What the...we shouldn't be so close to it, not yet." The colony's position was off; He had been here every year for four years, he knew more or less exactly where Junius Seven was positioned, in the center of the Debris Belt, near its outer edge. But now it was along the inner edge, nearly out of the Debris Belt entirely. He caught a barely-perceptible flash of movement, and magnified the image on his monitor.  
>He swore as he recognized a mobile suit - a beam carbine-equipped GINN High-Maneuver Type II. The PLANTs didn't manufacture or deploy those anymore.<br>"Zulu Team, this is Alpha. There are mobile suits in the colony, and they don't look friendly." Alex said as he contacted the other mobile suits. "Go to MS mode and prepare for combat; if those guys make a move, our priority is to defend the shuttle!"

He transformed the Murasame from its aircraft-like flight mode to mobile suit mode, gripping its beam rifle in one hand while the other held its shield. At that instant the GINNs spotted the shuttle and moved in to attack. Two of them fired on the mobile suits, one targeted the shuttle. Alex dropped the targeting reticle on him and fired twice, the first shot blasting off the arm that held the rifle, the second boring a hole in its cockpit block. He stored the rifle and began moving.  
>"Delta, Echo, stay with the shuttle. Bravo and Charlie, on me - Engage the enemy and destroy them before they have a chance to target the delegation!"<p>

Two mobile suits formed up defensively in front of the shuttle, which had stopped. The other two shot forward alongside Alex, who engaged one of the GINNs in close quarters. The enemy machine had a sword, which it swung towards Alex, but he drew his Murasame's beam saber and countered. The saber cut through the GINN's physical blade like a hot knife through butter and continued its course, goring the mobile suit and incinerating its pilot. However, his teammates were less fortunate.

Within moments, Zulu Bravo was overwhelmed as two of the GINNs engaged him. While the Murasame was leagues beyond the GINN as a mobile suit, the pilots of these machines were experienced veterans, and Orb's pilots had far less experience in combat, the nation having fielded mobile suits only in the last few months of the Bloody Valentine War.  
>That advantage served the GINNs in good stead, as a carbine shot from one of them destroyed the Murasame's rifle.<br>Drawing the beam saber, the young pilot counterattacked, slicing off his opponent's arm. However while he attempted to followed up with a strike to the cockpit, the other GINN drove its sword through the Murasame, slicing it in half. Zulu Charlie, the second Murasame, fared better. Using the Murasame's speed and its heavy shield to evade or block the enemy attacks, he fired a volley that took two GINNs with shots to the cockpit.

Additional GINNs appeared and were closing in when Alex switched to flight mode and rushed forward, firing off a volley of missiles that destroyed both. His maneuverability lower in flight mode, he reverted to mobile suit mode, narrowly avoiding an attack by an enemy GINN. He counterattacked with his own beam rifle, neatly blasting off its head, then drew the beam saber and sliced off both arms before shoving the GINN into nearby debris, crushing its backpack and rendering it essentially dead in the water.

"Four of us against who knows how many of them? This is bad." Alex commented. Plus they had to protect the shuttle. He wondered who these guys were as he returned into the fray, attacking a GINN that was moving in towards the shuttle. He sliced the wing thrusters off its back and the backpack detonated, the explosion destroying its torso and killing the pilot.

Meanwhile the _Minerva_ was, after a long trip at essentially flank speed, finally nearing its objective as it crossed slowly through the Debris Belt and approached Junius Seven. Yzak was nervous; he had hoped to intercept the shuttle long before its arrival, but their course had led them nearly to the colony. He was about to order a course change when Abby suddenly spoke.

"Confirming detection of the delegation shuttle plus three mobile suits. They look like Orb Union MVF-M11C Murasames" She began. Then her tone became alarmed as she continued. "Mobile suits appear to be engaged in combat against unknown enemy units!"

What little color there was in Yzak's pale, handsome face drained at those words. "What did you say? What mobile suits?"

-"Thermal pattern indicates GINN HMT or HMT2s. Nothing on the IFF."

-"Order the pilots to launch immediately! Get every machine we have out there and for God's sake protect that fucking shuttle!" Yzak ordered, a panicked edge to his voice. With the Chairman of the Supreme Council onboard, everyone knew they had to do everything they could, but Yzak's reaction was strange to some of the ship's junior crew members.

However, his reaction had little to do with the Chairman himself; The current situation reminded him far too much of to one of the darkest chapters of his military career, an incident that had gotten him court-martialed and nearly executed - only Durendal's unexpected pardon had saved Yzak from the firing squad. It had been in CE 71, in their battle against the _Archangel_ and Lewis Halberton's Eighth Fleet. The enemy flagship had launched a shuttle, which had passed between Yzak's Duel and its target - Kira's Strike. Angry and frustrated, and assuming that the _Menelaos_'s crew was fleeing in it, Yzak had gunned the shuttle down. Only afterwards did he find out the truth: over a hundred civilians had been on that shuttle, refugees from Heliopolis. He was determined to prevent something like that from happening again. "I'm going out too! Arthur, you have the bridge."

Meanwhile, Abby executed her orders immediately. "Impulse, ZAKU Unit 2, beginning launch sequence. ZAKU standby for launch with Gunner Wizard. All systems online." The red ZAKU slid into place in the portside catapults. On the starboard catapult, the same was done for the Impulse. A compartment in the side of the catapult opened, and the Gunner Wizard was mounted into place on the ZAKU's back. "Hatch open, linear catapult active; ZAKU is clear for launch."

-"Roger. Lunamaria Hawke, Gunner ZAKU. I'm taking off!" Luna announced, and her machine shot out the catapult.

From her console, Abby switched her attention to Shinn's Impulse.  
>"Stand by to launch Impulse; Force Silhouette selected - opening Silhouette Hangar 3." In the ship's central catapult, one of three dedicated compartments opened and the relevant equipment was loaded into launch position. "All systems online, cleared for launch. Force Silhouette standing by."<p>

-"Shinn Asuka, Impulse, launching!"

The Impulse Gundam shot out of the catapult. At the same instant, an unmanned Silhouette Flyer carrying the high-mobility Force Silhouette launched from the narrow central catapult and, guided by its laser tracking system, homed in on and docked with the Impulse. Shinn flipped the switch that activated the Impulse's VPS, which flared to life, turning his machine from dull-grey to blue and white.

Rey's white Blaze ZAKU soon followed, along with one of the two GuAIZ-Rs. The second GuAIZ launched next, followed by the third ZAKU, this one equipped with a high-mobility Tempest Wizard. Armed with two high-velocity beam gatling guns, this particular equipment was designed for high-mobility anti-MS combat, and allowed the ZAKU to fly in Earth's atmosphere. This unit was piloted by Yzak, who took the head of the formation as all six mobile suits began heading towards their objective.

"Is there any sign of a mothership those GINNs could be using?" Arthur asked as he sat at the bridge while his CO led the _Minerva_'s mobile suit team.

-"No, sir."

-"What's going on here? Are these guys the ones who altered Junius Seven's orbit? But why...?"

At Junius Seven meanwhile, the battle was not going well, as the four Murasames continued to fight the enemy GINNs.  
>"You're nothing but pests." Sato commented as he took aim at one of the Murasames and killed its pilot with a shot through its cockpit; the interfering teams may have had superior mobile suits, he reflected, but his own pilots had far greater skill. "And you will not stop us...Not now!"<br>There were only two mobile suits left to protect the shuttle. Alex took a shot at Sato, but the veteran pilot narrowly blocked the attack with his GINN's shield and dodged the attack, but a followup shot destroyed his rifle. He tossed the weapon aside.

Onboard the shuttle, the memorial delegation was panicking; none of them had ever seen combat except Marshall and Cagalli, and in any case they had never expected to find themselves in a battle. Cagalli looked around, she saw that Durendal alone remained calm, although she thought he appeared worried as well.  
><em>'Who wouldn't be, in a situation like this?' <em>She thought.

The pilots meanwhile started preparing to put some distance between the shuttle and these machines that were so intent on destroying them. Then one of the enemy units slipped a shot past them and hit the shuttle's engine. They were dead in the water - figuratively speaking.  
>Angered, the sole remaining escort Murasame pilot aimed at the shooter and fired, blasting off its head, then charged in and stabbed it in its cockpit block.<br>"Echo, don't abandon the shuttle!" Alex yelled, but it was too late. Before the Murasame could return to its position, one of the GINNs took advantage of the situation to move in between Echo and the shuttle. Turning on the Murasame, it struck from behind, slicing it in half with its heavy sword. Then it turned towards the shuttle and raised its beam carbine. Alex turned and charged, but he knew he wouldn't make it...

The carbine exploded as a single shot, fired from long range, obliterated the weapon. Without giving the pilot time to recover from the surprise, Alex hacked it in half from shoulder to hip, then turned towards the incoming machines.  
>He saw two GuAIZ-Rs and four other machines, one of them looking similar to the Aile Strike, but sleeker, more compact. The other three were new models, two apparently fitted for high-mobility combat, and one of them for long-range bombardment and artillery. Alex saw the rifle that had belonged to one of the fallen Murasame, and with a muttered apology reached for the weapon as the six ZAFT mobile suits closed in.<br>Behind them, Alex saw a huge dark-gray warship, which began to approach the shuttle. Then they began to engage the attacking GINNs.

"This is Alex Dino of the Orb Defense Force First Mobile Group." He hailed over the radio. "ZAFT Units, please respond."  
>At the controls of the Tempest ZAKU, Yzak recognized the voice and retorted angrily.<p>

-"Don't bullshit me Athrun, I know goddamn well it's you. Now what the hell are you doing here?"

-"Yzak?" Alex Dino, a.k.a. Athrun Zala, replied. He had been in Orb since CE 72, having decided to move there under an assumed name, at the behest of then-acting-Chairwoman Canaver to avoid any possible retaliation for his role in the war's end and the death of Patrick Zala.

-"That's Commander Joule to _you_, Athrun. Commanding Officer LHM-BB01 _Minerva_. Now again, what's going on here?"

-"The shuttle's been damaged by enemy attack; Those guys in the GINNs have attached flare motors to the remains of Junius Seven - they're deliberately dropping it."

-"We'll ensure the safe recovery of the shuttle; Additional ships are inbound to attempt to destroy the colony before it can fall." Yzak replied, and accelerated into the fray. The other mobile suits followed.

Meanwhile in the Debris Belt, a Laurasia-class and three Nazca-class ships were also inbound, nearing Junius Seven from the other side; The _Voltaire_ and _Rousseau_ of the Hahnenfuss Team, and the Hawkins Team's _Montesquieu_ and _Lemaître_. On the _Voltaire_'s bridge, Dearka Elsman looked out at the falling ruins.  
>"Man, look at the size of that thing...it's huge." He commented.<p>

-"No shit, Dearka. Remember, we live on one of those." Shiho Hahnenfuss deadpanned. She wore a dark-red uniform, albeit with men's slacks rather than the knee-length skirt typically issued to female soldiers. Next to her, Dearka wore green; though originally an Academy graduate in the same class as Shiho and a Red Coat himself, he had been required to reenlist following his desertion during the Bloody Valentine War, almost three years ago.

"The mission we're on right now is extremely important." He replied. "I commented on its size because it reminded me of just how important."

-"Listen, we don't have a lot of time." Shiho replied. "Yzak is already here with the _Minerva_; let's get this right."

-"Roger that." Dearka said with an amused smile as he entered the lift down to the hangar. In the hangar, preparations were under way to deploy. Dearka would lead the mobile suits, his Gunner ZAKU providing cover fire for the other machines, principally GuAIZ-Rs. They were primarily tasked with installing Meteor Breakers, heavy drilling units that carried a powerful, high-explosive warhead used for breaking apart asteroids, usually for transportation and eventual use in colony construction. Ironically, this time their purpose would be a colony's destruction. Shiho would stand by with the rest of their forces, for now - all the same, she ordered her GuAIZ prepped for takeoff. The CIC suddenly reported contact.

"Confirming the _Minerva_ near Junius Seven; it looks like they're nearing the delegation shuttle. They also appear to be engaging in combat against unknown enemy MS."

-"Slow us down and make a silent approach; Get the Breaker and escort teams out ASAP." Shiho replied.

The order was soon followed as the Hahnenfuss Team's MS teams began to launch. However, as they were beginning to place the Breakers, Sato spotted them and split his forces - some of them remained to engage the _Minerva_'s machines, most turned to target the newcomers. Closing fast, the beam carbine-equipped GINNs attacked, destroying one of the Breakers and the two mobile suits installing it.

"What the...GINNs? Where the hell did they come from?" Dearka swore as he prepared to attack, deploying the Gunner ZAKU's big "Orthros" high-energy long-range beam cannon. He targeted one of the GINNs with the cannon as he fired a volley of "Firebee" missiles from the launcher on the ZAKU's back. Occupied with avoiding the missiles, the GINN failed to account for the ZAKU itself, and Dearka took advantage of the opportunity to fire a shot from the powerful cannon that obliterated the GINN's entire torso.

Unnoticed by anyone however, an unseen threat still lurked. This was the _Nana Buluku_, a stealth battleship operated by the 81st Independent Battalion of the Atlantic Federation - a unit also known as Phantom Pain. Currently it was using a Mirage Colloid Stealth System, which was an illegal technology under the terms of the Treaty of Junius Seven, to conceal itself from the ships in the area.  
>On its bridge, mission commander Lukas O'Donnell observed the situation, noting that the ZAFT mobile suits appeared to be fighting each other. Lukas, renowned as a Eurasian Federation ace and veteran of the Bloody Valentine War, was the commander of Phantom Pain. Next to him was Ian Lee, the ship's CO.<p>

"What do you think those ZAFT mobile suits are doing here?" Ian asked slowly.

-"I haven't any more idea than you. But perhaps this event isn't some act of God after all. Send out our mobile suits - I want a better grasp of the situation. And record as much data as possible from this end." Lukas replied.

-"Activate Gottfrieds One and Two." ordered Ian Lee. "Load launchers one through eight with Korinthos. Target the port-side Nazca-class. Disengage Mirage Colloid upon firing and take us to maximum thrust. All mobile suits, stand by for launch."

"Now then," Lukas commented, "Things are about to get _very_ interesting. You're in command - I'm going out as well."

As he headed to the hangar, Lukas thought about what he'd seen. There were five ZAFT ships, all of them standing by.  
>One of them was near what looked to be a damaged and possibly abandoned civilian shuttle. And there were several groups of ZAFT mobile suits - GINNs, GuAIZ, and several new models. Lukas shrugged - they would know soon enough, one way or another.<p>

The ship fired, critically damaging the _Montesquieu_'s engine block, then unleashed its missiles at the other ships as its cloak dissipated and it moved forward. Then it launched three machines, which turned and headed into the fray, towards Junius Seven. Once those were out, four Daggers were deployed as well. Leading the formation was the mobile armor TSX-MA24F Chaos, designed as a successor to the venerable TS-MA2mod.00 Moebius Zero; the difference was that its four gunbarrels were controlled wirelessly, and it had two linear cannons to the original's one.

One of the two mobile suits was the GAT-X731 Abyss, a variable mobile suit designed loosely based on the GAT-X252 Forbidden and GAT-X255 Forbidden Blue. The Abyss was designed to be able to operate underwater like the Forbidden Blue, or in space as the Forbidden did, though it lacked the original Forbidden's aerial maneuverability on Earth. Its pilot was Auel Neider, an Extended Human - trained and enhanced into a living weapon capable of facing a Coordinator on equal terms. As was his teammate.  
>Her name was Stella Loussier, and she piloted the GAT-X388 Gaia Gundam, a variable MS designed for high-speed ground combat, both at long and close ranges. Whereas the Abyss could transform into a more streamlined submarine mode for higher underwater speed, the Gaia was able to assume a quadruped ground combat mode intended to emulate ZAFT's TMFA-802 BuCUE.

One team of GuAIZ-Rs, led by an orange Blaze ZAKU, was able to leave the crippled _Montesquieu_, and were promptly engaged by the Daggers, which destroyed most of the GuAIZ-Rs, though the survivors - including their leader - were able to rally and attack the newly-arrived enemy. Meanwhile the Chaos, Gaia, and Abyss continued towards Junius Seven.

"Where the hell did that ship come from?" Shiho yelled when they detected the ship and its attack, as well as its mobile suits. "To get that close undetected, it had to have been using Mirage Colloid. Contact the _Minerva_! Captain Kendall, take command for now - I'm going out too."

She ran down to the hangar, where her midnight-blue GuAIZ was on standby for immediate takeoff, and launched. As she headed into combat she was engaged by one of the Daggers, firing a short-range beam carbine. Blocking the attack, she accelerated and closed in, dodging a second shot before counterattacking with her GuAIZ's extensional arrestors. The two beam-edged claws tore into the Dagger's body and ripped it in half. With the Hawkins Team able to fend off the remaining Daggers, she shot off towards Junius Seven to help cover the demolition teams, forcing one of the enemy GINNs to break off with a rifle shot just as he prepared to target one of the Meteor Breakers.

-"The work crews have to continue demolition!" She stated, then as the GINN attacked her she neatly slid past his attack, moving inside its reach and cutting him apart from shoulder to hip with the twin beam blades mounted to her shield.

As this was happening, the _Minerva_'s own MS team was engaged in combat with the enemy units. Dearka had also joined up with them, and they were doing their best to keep the enemy engaged and unable to target the Meteor Breakers. Both Shawn and Dale, the _Minerva_'s GuAIZ-R pilots, had been shot down by the enemy, and despite their best efforts a total of three Breakers had been destroyed. As a pair of enemy GINNs started another attack run on one of the Breakers, Dearka fired the Orthros beam cannon at one of them; the GINNs scattered, dodging the shot, then resumed their attack.  
>"What's with these guys? They're fucking experts!" He exclaimed angrily.<p>

Yzak saw the incoming attack and moved in, firing a surprise attack with the Tempest ZAKU's "Hydra" beam gatlings that tore to shreds one of the two GINNs. The other broke off and turned to attack the ZAKU with its sword, a mistake that sealed his fate.

Yzak held in hand the ZAKU's optional "Falx" beam axe, a long-shafted weapon that took the place of the default beam tomahawk normally stored in a compartment in its shield. Its long reach served him in good stead as he sliced off the GINN's sword arm before the enemy unit had a chance to close in, and followed up with a second strike that bisected its cockpit vertically, killing the pilot instantly. Then he heard Dearka on the radio.  
>"Yzak! We're in trouble, man. These guys have reinforcements - I just got a message from Shiho that a new ship trashed the <em>Montesquieu<em>."

-"DAMN IT." Yzak swore loudly. "As if we didn't have enough trouble keeping these pricks off the work crews already!" Then they saw on their displays three new machines.

-"The hell? Where did these pricks come from?" Dearka wondered as the Chaos destroyed one of the GINNs, while the Gaia and Abyss destroyed one of the Breakers and the mobile suits operating it.

-"Who cares?" Yzak retorted. "Our objective is to protect the Breaker teams - if those clowns are attacking them, that makes them our enemy."

The red Murasame, the sole remaining Orb mobile suit, pulled up as well.

-"They must have come from that ship - I guess it wasn't reinforcements for these guys after all."

-"Wait a minute, I know that voice." Dearka exclaimed. "_ATHRUN_? What're you doing here?"

-"Later. Right now, we have a job to do!" Athrun replied seriously, though he was glad to see Dearka again.

-"No shit! And where do you get off giving me orders?" Yzak snapped. "_I'm _the one in charge here. Come with me - we're focusing on the GINNs. The rest of you, keep those three pricks off us!"

It was Shinn who made the first move, firing at the Abyss. The shot rebounded off its anti-beam-coated outer shoulder armor, and it retaliated with its beam cannons.  
>Lunamaria found herself exchanging fire with the Gaia, while the Chaos targeted Rey, launching two of its Gunbarrels, which Rey had to avoid before counterattacking.<br>He fired a salvo from the ZAKU's beam rifle at the mobile armor itself, then targeted the Gunbarrels and fired a volley from the Blaze ZAKU's high-capacity "Firebee" missile launchers, using his maneuverability to evade the enemy attacks. His gamble paid off; the Gunbarrels were Phase Shift-armored, so the few missiles that did hit had no effect. However, the attack opened a gap in the enemy's defense and Rey fired the beam rifle again, destroying one of its two linear cannons.

Taking aim at the charging Gaia Gundam with the Gunner ZAKU's heavy beam cannon Luna fired, but the nimble machine dodged the attack. Luna followed up with a volley from her back-mounted missile launcher, which hit. Unfortunately, the Gaia's PS armor protected it, and the attack did no damage. She fired another shot from the beam cannon, which the more agile Gundam dodged before plowing into her ZAKU, throwing her off-balance.

"All right...you're finished!" Stella cried in the cockpit of the Gaia, drawing and aiming a long-barreled beam rifle.

-"Not so fast!" Luna yelled as she righted herself, then kicked the charging Gaia, literally tossing it back. She drew a beam tomahawk from its compartment in the ZAKU's left shoulder shield and threw it as the Gaia fired. The weapon hit and damaged the Gaia's right wing, throwing off its aim, and an attack that had been aimed for the ZAKU's cockpit instead blew off its right leg. Firing a barrage of missiles at the Gaia to cover herself, Luna fell back.

Meanwhile, Athrun spotted two GINNs closing in to attack and pivoted his Murasame, firing his beam rifle at one of them. The attack destroyed its carbine, and when it attempted to attack with a sword he blew off its arm. Having shaken off Rey, the Chaos returned its attention to the Breaker teams, and Athrun intervened, dodging an attack from its gunbarrels and destroying one of them with a well-placed rifle shot. He stowed the rifle and drew the Murasame's single beam saber, then headed towards the enemy mobile armor.

"Back off and let us work!" He yelled as he attacked the Chaos, forcing the mobile armor to veer away. The enemy continued the attack, firing its linear cannon and deploying its two remaining Gunbarrels. Blocking the attack with the Murasame's shield, Athrun closed in and sliced one of the pods in half with his machine's beam saber. Then Rey moved in, targeting the remaining pod with the ZAKU's rifle. Unfortunately his attack narrowly missed and the Chaos counterattacked with a "Zorn" multiphase beam cannon mounted along the top of its main body. Rey blocked the attack but the cannon overwhelmed his ZAKU's shield, destroying it and blasting off the ZAKU's left arm, taking with it the rifle. Rey deployed the ZAKU's last-ditch weapon - a short-barreled railgun mounted to its shoulder, which flipped up and fired, hitting the last Gunbarrel just as it fired a volley of missiles, which detonated explosively and obliterated the pod.

With the number of mobile suits now in combat, the work crews were able to continue positioning the Meteor Breakers, which burrowed deep into Junius Seven with their explosive cargo. Seeing this, Sato targeted one of the Meteor Breakers. Dearka, who was defending it, spotted him and fired his beam cannon, obliterating his GINN's leg.

"Hurry it up!" Dearka heard Yzak ordering. "Or else it won't matter even if we split it!"

Meanwhile the remaining ships were engaging the enemy battleship, the _Montesquieu_ having been destroyed. Critically damaged, the _Lemaître_ meanwhile was pulling back, covered by the other two ships.

The _Minerva_ itself had pulled alongside the damaged shuttle, and took advantage of a lull in the combat to send an escape craft to the shuttle to retrieve the memorial delegation. Once all of them were safely aboard the _Minerva_, the ship began to pull away from the shuttle and move back towards Junius Seven. At the same time, Arthur ordered a message sent to the newly-arrived Alliance ship on an open channel clarifying that the ZAFT ships were attempting to destroy Junius Seven, and that the GINNs alone belonged to the enemy that had started the colony's deadly descent.

Despite the destruction of its gunbarrels, the Chaos pressed the attack, engaging Athrun's Murasame at close range, while Shinn continued to fend off the Abyss. Completely disregarding the loss of his ZAKU's arm, Rey remained in combat, using his Blaze Wizard's missile launchers in conjunction with the railgun to defend the Breaker Teams. One GINN closed in to attack and Rey fired twice, blasting off its legs before taking it out with a shot to the cockpit. Behind him, the Meteor Breaker he'd been defending was at last deployed, and the first set of the devices detonated. The explosion split Junius Seven in half, with one half slowing down its descent, while the other, larger half continued falling.

"Come on! We're not done yet!" Athrun exclaimed as he formed up with Yzak and Dearka's machine, the latter moving one of the remaining Meteor Breakers. Suddenly, two enemy GINNs appeared, moving to attack the Breaker.

"Let's go!" Yzak exclaimed, targeting one with his beam rifle as Athrun targeted the other. In short order, both were destroyed.

"There's more of them!" Auel in the Abyss Gundam exclaimed when he spotted them, incorrectly identified the two ZAKUs and the Murasame as enemies, and fired. His attack missed, and Yzak and Athrun both attacked immediately, closing into close range combat. Athrun switched back to his Murasame's beam rifle and fired a volley at the Abyss, which blocked it. Taking advantage of Auel's distraction, Yzak moved in and attacked with the "Falx" beam axe, slicing off its leg. Pinned between the two, the Abyss fired its torso-mounted "Scylla" beam cannon at the Murasame, then turned to the ZAKU and attacked with the paired beam cannons on its back. Both Yzak and Athrun dodged the attacks.

As the Chaos also moved in and fired, Yzak immediately turned his attention to it, leaving the Abyss to Athrun. Dodging the attack, he moved into close range and sliced its remaining linear cannon down the entire length of its barrel, splitting it in two. When the Chaos attempted to retaliate, igniting the beam claw on its leg and attempting to hack the ZAKU in half, Yzak slipped sideways and severed the limb, then unleashed a withering hail of beam cannon-fire from the Tempest Wizard's beam gatling guns that forced the now nearly-weaponless Chaos to fall back.

-"Awesome..." Shinn, who'd been closing in, suddenly slowed as he saw the two of them, awed by their skill. "So this is the skill of veterans of Jachin Due..."

Meanwhile, Dearka positioned and deployed the Breaker, as did another of their remaining work crew mobile suits. Suddenly, the Alliance ship sent out a retreat signal flare. Seeing it, the Gaia and Abyss withdrew, following the Chaos back towards their ship.  
>"Finally, they're backing off." Dearka commented.<p>

-"Maybe, but there's a good reason for that." Yzak replied, "If this keeps up we won't be able to escape Earth's gravity." Then he opened up a line to the _Minerva_. "Have we recovered the memorial delegation?"

-"Yes, sir. The delegation is safe aboard the ship."

-"Excellent. Recall our mobile suits. The _Minerva_ will descend with the remaining fragment and attempt to destroy it with the Tannhäuser."

-"Right."

Dearka meanwhile had already broken off and was headed back towards the _Voltaire_.  
>-"We're out of time. Shiho! We have to get back to the ship!" Both the ZAKU and the GuAIZ began their retreat. At the same time, Rey and Luna began to head back up towards the <em>Minerva<em>. But one mobile suit had not retreated, Shinn noticed, and he turned back to look for it.

"Where is he...there!" Shinn spotted the red Murasame, still working to position one of the Meteor Breakers. He hesitated briefly, remembering that he had overheard Captain Joule on the radio identify its pilot as "Athrun". The name of Athrun Zala was legendary among ZAFT's younger recruits, but he didn't really know what to expect.  
>"What're you doing?" He asked, closing in on him. "We've orders to withdraw."<p>

-"Yeah, I know. You should head back...I'm going to at least get this thing going." Shaking his head, Shinn moved around, taking up a position on the Breaker's other side.

-"What is someone like you doing in Orb, anyway?" Shinn asked. Athrun heard a condescending edge in the tone of the question, and was about to reply when they came under attack from three GINNs - the last ones, apparently. One was missing an arm, another a leg. The third was apparently undamaged.

-"I won't let you cause any more damage!" One of the GINN pilots screamed as they charged.

-"They're still here too!" Shinn exclaimed as he drew his beam saber, then moved in to attack.  
>One of the three GINNs fired at the Meteor Breaker and Athrun blocked it, countering with the Murasame's rifle. As Shinn sliced in half the GINN that was attacking the Breaker, a transmission sounded from one of the remaining two.<p>

-"No! My daughter's tombstone must fall! It's the only way this world will ever change!"

-"What? his daughter..." Shinn muttered. The leader shot past the Impulse and attacked the Murasame, while Shinn engaged the other.

-"Have you forgotten the innocent lives so mercilessly ended here? You're living in a damned dream world, laughing with the butchers who caused all this!" Sato screamed as he attacked the Murasame again, and Athrun blocked the shot, countering again with the rifle. He destroyed the carbine, but Sato drew his GINN's sword again and charged in. Reflexively, Athrun used the Murasame's shield to block the attack. "Why can't you see...The only true path for Coordinators was the one that Patrick Zala had chosen for us!"

For an instant, Athrun faltered at the sound of his father's name, as memories flashed past him; his mother, murdered in the Bloody Valentine; GENESIS; Patrick Zala, his father, dying in his arms still desperate to accomplish his genocidal ambitions.

-"Never..." He said coldly, as a newfound determination steeled his resolve. "NEVER AGAIN SAY MY FATHER'S NAME!" He kicked away the GINN. Suddenly, he seemed preternaturally aware of his surroundings, the GINN's movements, and even the exact location of the Impulse and its opponent as well as Junius Seven itself. He once more stowed the beam rifle and drew the beam saber instead. Thrown off balance by the sudden attack, Sato hesitated for a split second as he heard Athrun's yell, momentarily stunned by the implication of his words. Could his enemy really be the son of Patrick Zala? He wondered as he righted himself and prepared to attack again.

"My name is Athrun Zala," Athrun said on an open frequency, confirming Sato's suspicion as he discarded the mask of "Alex Dino" behind which he had hidden for so long, "and I will not allow you to cower behind my father's name as an excuse for your crimes!"

It didn't matter, Sato decided. he moved in and attempted to slash at the Murasame, the attack aimed for the torso. But to Athrun it was almost like it was moving in slow motion, and he dodged the strike easily, slipping to the side and bringing his beam saber around. His attack slashed off the GINN's blade mere inches above its hilt.

The second GINN attempted to charge the Murasame from behind, but Shinn was ready, slicing off its remaining arm. With a scream, the pilot wrapped his machine's legs around the Impulse and self-detonated, rocking the Impulse and stunning Shinn, but doing no real damage: Equipped with Variable Phase-Shift Armor, the Impulse was protected from conventional attacks.  
>The remnants of the GINN's torso struck the Breaker and triggered it, allowing it to bore deep into Junius Seven.<p>

Athrun attempted to fall back, but Sato's GINN latched onto his Murasame's leg. Left with no other options, he adjusted the beam saber and sliced off the Murasame's leg, then increased thrust through the remaining leg and the back-mounted thrusters. Pulled down by gravity, the GINN slammed into Junius Seven and exploded just as the sole breaker detonated, breaking the remnant into two pieces as both the Impulse and the Murasame, firmly caught by Earth's gravity, began to fall through the atmosphere.

In the Impulse's cockpit, well clear of the falling debris, Shinn frantically altered the Impulse's settings so he could make the descent.  
>-"Adjusting angle of entry; cooling systems all green, attitude control and BCS are good. Okay, now where is he?" As he turned the Impulse forward, he spotted the damaged mobile suit. He adjusted his trajectory to intercept it as inside his own cockpit, Athrun reviewed his own machine's status.<p>

-"Maybe it's because of the damage, but that right leg is really heating up..." He muttered as the intense heat began taking its toll. Alex knew the Murasame was not designed to be able to reenter the atmosphere on its own. He ejected the Murasame's weapons, which detonated far behind him. If he'd been able to switch to flight mode he might have had a slim chance of survival, but like this...  
>Just then the Impulse intercepted the Murasame, deploying its own shield in front to protect both machines. On the <em>Minerva<em>, Yzak had returned to the bridge. Cagalli had also come up to the bridge, but he had not spoken to her - he had more important things on his mind.

"Descent sequence, stage two." Arthur announced as the ship's wings began to close.

-"Any sign of the Impulse and that other idiot?" Yzak asked.

-"No, sir. I can't get a fix on them." Abby replied, sounding stressed.

-"Captain, we're approaching stage 3! Any longer and we won't be able to fire!" Arthur exclaimed.

-"Activate the Tannhäuser." Yzak ordered, somewhat reluctant. "We have to destroy that thing, no matter the consequences." To himself, he added _'I just hope those two were able to get clear.'  
><em>The ship rotated to face towards the falling colony fragment as the bow opened and the cannon deployed. "FIRE!" Yzak ordered. The cannon fired, breaking away a large chunk of the debris, which began to shatter. They fired a second time, and the massive chunk of debris shattered into small pieces. Many of them burned away in the atmosphere. Most did not.  
>-"Entering descent sequence stage 3!" came the cry from the bridge as the screens went blank, and the cannon retracted, the bow closing over it.<p>

It was over; they had done everything in their power to stop Junius Seven from falling...

...and they had failed.


	3. Phase 03: A Shattered World

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **Chapter 3 covers Phase 7 of the series, plus additional material drawn in part from the ONA Gundam Seed C.E. 73 Stargazer, dealing with the aftermath and introducing a couple of characters who will be joining the cast. The next few chapters will more closely follow GSD itself, and the following story arc will mark the first true divergence from canon in this particular story, though it probably will retain many elements from the original.

* * *

><p><strong>PHASE 03: A Shattered World<strong>

All over the world, the fragments of Junius Seven began to hit, as in every nation on Earth evacuations were still under way. The damage to coastal areas in particular was catastrophic as the falling debris caused tidal waves that swept far inland. But in one large residence deep in the heart of the Atlantic Federation, the atmosphere was very different from the panic that gripped the rest of the world.  
>"Now...this is a complete disaster." Said one elderly man to his peers. There were roughly a dozen of them, dressed in impeccably pressed suits and clustered around a pool table.<p>

-"An unprecedented crisis," agreed a second, "A scenario for Earth's destruction. So much damage done..." Many of them muttered in assent.

-"Everything will be fine." Answered one man, and the muttering stopped. This man was younger than most of the others, with close-cropped, ash-blonde hair and an expression of smug superiority. This man's name was Teivel Jibril, and he was the leader of Blue Cosmos. "I had ordered Phantom Pain to investigate the situation. But now that it has fallen, the time has come to put our plans into action."

-"What do you mean, Jibril?"

-"Durendal in the PLANTs was the one who warned the nations of Earth, and was quick to assert that he was doing everything in his power to prevent a collision. Even now, he has already sent ZAFT forces into many areas for "disaster relief". But how did this crisis take place? And why? The entire world is asking those questions, and we will provide them the answers. Who's to blame? Why, the Coordinators of course!"

-"That's fine by me," said one of the others, "but given the situation and our probable casualties, we may not have the strength left to fight a war. And it's possible that this was a natural event - an accident." Jibril smiled, his expression becoming even more arrogant.

-"That is the reason I have gathered you here today. You see, Phantom Pain's investigation into the matter yielded some very interesting results." As he spoke, he laid out on the table a spread of photographs, showing ZAFT mobile suits among the remains of Junius Seven, and mobile pods attaching flare motors to the structure.

-"Son of a bitch...so they did cause it!"

-"Indeed. This trump card was unexpected - I was going to put our plans into motion regardless. But this is perfect. Not a single human living on Earth will be able to forgive the Coordinators after seeing these...this time, we'll bring an end to every last one of those bastards. For the preservation of our blue and pure world!"

Far out in the Pacific Ocean, the _Minerva_'s wings unfolded as it stabilized after reentry.

"How are communications and sensors?" Yzak asked.

-"Offline; the fragments are interfering with the radio waves, sir."

-"Then use laser designators or thermal sensors! Just find them!" He replied. "We have no way of knowing whether they made it...but I hope so."

-"Thermal sensors have picked up something; seven o'clock, distance 400. I think..."

-"Get us a visual!" Yzak ordered. Moments later, the display showed the Impulse, carrying the charred remains of the Murasame.

-"Looks like they're both okay!" Bart exclaimed. "Okay" was relative - the Impulse was apparently intact, but the Murasame was obviously a complete write-off.

-"Retrieve them immediately." Yzak ordered. Arthur fired a signal flare to indicate the ship's location, and Malik adjusted the ship's position. Moments later, both machines had landed. Cagalli ran from the bridge to the hangar, arriving just as an exhausted Athrun left what remained of his machine. Just then, the ship rocked and they heard, dimly, a sound like thunder.

-"What was that?" Vino asked.

-"Shockwaves from the impact of the first fragments - I'd guess they've just gone all the way around the world." Rey answered evenly. Behind them, Shinn left the cockpit of the Impulse, as the ship decreased altitude and prepared for a water landing. Not long afterwards, the ship floated safely on the surface. Much of the crew went out on the deck. So did Athrun, Cagalli with him.

"Are you all right, Athrun?" She asked, concerned about him.

-"Yeah, everything's fine." He answered vaguely.

-"You really had me worried." Cagalli said, looking at him. After a moment, she continued, "You know, as bad as it was, it could've been a lot worse if it hadn't been for the _Minerva_, and Yzak's and Dearka's team. I'm sure the people of Earth will be grateful."

-"Shut up, you IDIOT!" Came an angry exclamation from behind them. The cry came from Shinn, who was glaring angrily at Cagalli. "Didn't you understand what was happening up there? Junius Seven didn't fall by some kind of freak accident; it was a deliberate attack, and _it was perpetrated by Coordinators_!"

-"Shinn!" Rey, standing nearby, interrupted. The dark-haired pilot's words stunned Cagalli. Athrun stepped forward and stood next to and slightly in front of Cagalli, ready to intercede if things got ugly. Shinn ignored the interruption as well as Athrun's movement, and continued. "They were soldiers with a grudge, people who'd lost family during the war! And they dropped it to kill all the Naturals!"

-"I...I know that! But you guys did everything you could to try and stop it!" Cagalli stammered.

-"OF COURSE WE DID!" Shinn roared.

-"But still," Athrun continued, "A lot of fragments fell on Earth. Only a handful of people were responsible, but it doesn't matter. All that anyone will remember is that they were Coordinators. Do you think they'll be quick to forgive - once they learn that?" And with that, Athrun turned and left, heading back inside.

-"Their leader said something before he died." Shinn said, looking at Cagalli. "He said 'The only true path for Coordinators was the one that Patrick Zala had chosen for us.'" That statement was greeted with shock, not just from Cagalli but from everyone within earshot. "You really have no idea what he's going through, do you? I feel pretty sorry for him." And he turned his back on Cagalli, heading, like Athrun, back inside.  
>Cagalli soon followed, heading for the bridge, where she was met by Yzak.<p>

"Communications are out right now." He said, guessing why she was coming up.

-"I see..." She replied.

-"Still, we're in a pretty bad way, and Orb is the closest nation to our position." He continued. "Plus we can't keep you around forever, to say nothing of the other delegates. We'll complete emergency repairs at sea, and then we're headed for Orb."

-"I appreciate that, Captain. When we get there I'll do everything I can to make sure the _Minerva_'s taken care of, as thanks for your courage and that of your crew...though, I can't really promise you even that much." Slightly crestfallen, she left, returning to her quarters.

**EURASIAN FEDERATION**  
><strong>Bandar-e-Abbas, Iran<strong>

With the fall of Junius Seven, many of the coastal areas of the Eurasian and Atlantic Federation had been decimated. Bandar-e-Abbas, once one of the finest military bases in the Gulf of Oman, was nearly leveled as the straight of Hormuz concentrated the cataclysmic waves caused by the fall of one of the fragments in the center of the Arabian Sea. The devastation did not stop there, but swept past the ruined base and decimated every town along the coast from Rhas-al-Khaimah to Al Faw, and even as far inland as Al Basrah. Amidsts the ruins of the base, the few surviving Eurasian military personnel had hastily set up a refugee camp, and reinforcements and supplies had been airlifted from Tehran. Survivors from the towns on the Gulf trickled in, but they were few, and many of them were wounded.  
>Of the more than a hundred mobile suits that had been at Bandar-e-Abbas, either as part of the base defense or onboard the ships docked there, none remained. Only three linear tanks and a handful of missile trucks were operable.<p>

"God damn...talk about a disaster." The speaker was a tall, barrel-chested man of forty, an ex-tank platoon commander named Edmond Du Clos. Now involved in humanitarian work throughout the world, he had been dispatched to Iran in an effort to aid the military in disaster relief. But as he looked around now, he was overwhelmed.

-"Major!" said a voice, startling him. He turned around and saw the speaker, a twenty-something black kid in military uniform.

-"Hey, it's Corporal Reyes." He said, recognizing one of his men from the old days. During the Bloody Valentine War Edmond had been one of the Alliance's finest tank commanders, but he had retired at the war's end.

-"It's Sergeant now, sir."

-"Don't "sir" me, I'm a civilian now; But hey, when we get done here, I'll buy you a drink, celebrate the promotion."

-"I look forward to it." The younger man answered, as Edmond walked on. He turned to his companion, and began to discuss the situation. "We're doing the best we can, but we're short on food and medical supplies, and ironically enough, drinking water. Any word from Tehran or Riyadh?"

-"Nothing yet," the other, a younger woman Edmond worked with, answered. Suddenly, from the other end of the compound was a sound Edmond knew well, and he knew it meant trouble.

-"What the hell?"

-"What was that explosion?"

Panic erupted, as everyone tried to determine the source of the commotion. Edmond spotted it immediately; looking out across the compound, he saw a single mobile suit - an old ZAFT GINN, heavily armed - firing at the compound. As he watched, a Eurasian Federation helicopter, which had been airlifting wounded too badly injured to care for here and taking them to Tehran, was shot down by the attacker. It exploded. The camp's few operational missile trucks turned and moved towards the enemy to engage, as preparations were made to deploy the linear tanks as well.

-"What is going on - is this war?" Asked one of the military officers in charge of the camp. "Contact Military HQ in Riyadh, find out what's going on!" he ordered.

Meanwhile, the GINN's rampage continued, as it fired indiscriminately at everything in sight including one of the two military hovercrafts that sat offshore, which had brought troops and supplies and now served to coordinate relief efforts. Another attack leveled the building that had served as the refugee camp's command center, severing their communications. Edmond could only hope that they'd got out a mayday in time. Clenching his fists, he turned around, advising his companion that they should evacuate as many as possible to the remaining hovercraft and leave. Then he ran back the way he'd come. A tank stopped, and the kid Reyes hailed him.  
>"Major! What're you still doing here?"<p>

-"Sorry," Edmond said later, "but you'll have to turn in a written report." He now sat with Reyes in the tank as they headed towards the GINN; far ahead, the missile trucks had engaged, but the machine leaped over their attack and shot them to pieces with its machine gun. Its rampage then continued.

-"No, I don't mind. It's an honor to ride with you again, sir." Reyes answered. "With the command center out of commission, I have to make the most effective decisions on my own." Edmond grinned - the kid knew his stuff.

-"Set firing interval to 0.5 seconds!" He said.

-"Sir, the barrel's never gonna hold that!" Reyes replied, looking concerned.

-"Doesn't matter - we won't get a second chance to fire anyway." Edmond dismissed the protest. "And close in as fast as possible!"

Meanwhile, the other two tanks were already in range and attacking. The first shot hit the GINN, tearing its hand off, and with it the machinegun. The enemy turned towards them.

Again the tank fired, and this time impacted the GINN's leg. The machine stumbled as the limb buckled, and hit the ground. At that moment a combat helo - no doubt launched from the hovercraft - attacked from behind, damaging its backpack, which detonated. The GINN stood with difficulty, turned and fired, destroying one of the two tanks. The second fired, and this time the GINN's arm was torn off, but it counterattacked with the bazooka it held in its other arm, destroying the tank. When the combat helo attempted another pass, the GINN fired the missiles it had left in its leg launcher, and the helo was forced to fall back to avoid the attack.  
>Then it spotted the third tank, closing fast. Edmond knew they'd been made; the GINN turned towards them and leveled its bazooka just as they entered optimal firing range for the linear cannon.<p>

-"Get in closer! As close as possible, or the shot won't pierce the armor!" He ordered.

-"Roger!" came the reply from Reyes. The GINN fired.

-"FIRE!" Edmond yelled, and Reyes pulled the trigger. In less than two seconds, three supersonic slugs shot from the barrel, which overheated and blew.

One shot hit the damaged leg, bringing down the GINN for good, and the other two hit the cockpit. The big slugs ripped apart the pilot and exited out the damaged back of the mobile suit, slamming into the ruins of a damaged building behind it. At the same instant the GINN's single rocket hit the tank, flipping it and tearing it open.

Over the radio, Edmond heard the hovercraft order the helo in to finish it off - not that it needed to. Then came the panicked alert - still more mobile suits incoming, and fast. He glanced over at Reyes - the poor kid was dead, and all for nothing. Then, in the growing light of pre-dawn, he saw something - a fast-moving speck in the sky. He recognized it, and smiled as he closed his eyes for the final time.

However, the battle was not over yet. ZAFT TMF/A-802/W2 Kerberos BuCUEs and TFA-4DE GAZuOOTs rolled into the camp from the south. These were enhanced versions of the older BuCUEs and ZuOOT mobile suits first fielded in CE71, with improved performance and equipped with beam weapons. Immediately they began to open fire, leveling those few buildings still left standing.

"DAMN IT! That first GINN was nothing but a decoy! Those bastards won't stop until they've slaughtered every man, woman and child here!" The hovercraft's commander raged. The camp had housed thousands of refugees from all around the coast, many of them injured; and their only remaining military resources were one combat helicopter; they were defenseless.

-"Last word from HQ in Riyadh was that these were isolated terrorists, followers of Patrick Zala; They said reinforcements were inbound from Gibraltar."

-"Bullshit! Even if they're sending anyone, they won't get there in time."

-"New airborne contact, closing fast from the west!"  
>With no heavy weapons or mobile suits, the base's infantry were attempting to hold back the enemy with conventional artillery, to little effect. Suddenly, one of the BuCUEs exploded, and one of the men looked up.<p>

"Reinforcements are here!" He saw three silhouettes, approaching fast from above.

-"Only three?" said one of his comrades. "What good'll that do?"

-"No, look! Those Daggers - look at their colors!" the first soldier replied, a relieved expression on his face.  
>Two GAT-02L2 Dagger-Ls landed; one was equipped with the AQME-M2K Sword Striker, an improved version of the original Sword Striker. The second had the AQM/E-M3K Launcher Striker Striker, a similarly improved version of the Launcher Striker. Developed by Eurasian arms manufacturer Aktaion Industries, these weapons packs were used only by the Eurasian Federation military. Far above, the aircraft that had carried them continued on its course as the third machine made its way under its own power. All three mobile suits were jet-black.

-"They're...they're black! It's the Five-O-First!" The 501st Autonomous Corps of the Eurasian Federation Armed Forces were legendary: they were the absolute élite, a Special Operations unit akin to the Atlantic Federation's 81st Independent Mobile Battalion.

As the first two machines engaged the ZAFT mobile suits on the ground, the third machine attacked from the air; This was not a Dagger, but a sleeker, more powerful mobile suit; a GAT-04 Windam, equipped, unlike its teammates, for aerial combat. From its flight pack, four cannons protruded menacingly to either side of its head, and a sword hilt peeked out from below each arm. Its shield held a single gatling gun which it fired, riddling a GaZuOOT with bullets before drawing its swords as it landed.  
>When the BuCUEs attacked, he eviscerated first one, then the other.<p>

-"Geez," complained the pilot of the Launcher Dagger complained as he targeted one of the other BuCUEs with his 32cm hyper-impulse cannon. "Showoff. You think he'd leave some for the rest of us." His name was Shams Couza, a twenty-one-year old Sri Lankan Second Lieutenant. Brash and arrogant, Shams's temper frequently brought him at odds with his CO, the taciturn Major Sven Cal Bayan. Twenty-two years old, the German-born Sven was literally unshakeable; Shams had never seen him lose his cool or raise his voice.

For his part, Shams got along better with the third member of their team, the attractive First Lieutenant Mudie Holcroft. The sharp, cynical Mudie, at twenty, was the youngest member of the team, and specialized in close-quarters combat; A BuCUE engaged her Dagger and she jumped up, landing on its back.

-"It's like my teacher used to say: The only good Coordinator," she said as she drove her "Schwert Gewehr II" anti-ship beam sword vertically in through its back just behind the neck, where she knew that, on the BuCUE's belly, the cockpit was positioned, "is a _dead Coordinator."_

She leaped off, then as she landed, cut loose with the Dagger-L's beam carbine at a GaZuOOT, which exploded. She spotted a GINN next, drawing its sword and charging their leader.

-"Sven!" Mudie hailed over the radio. She got his attention, and he spotted the incoming MS. Without a word, the pilot turned to face the new enemy, tilting his blade horizontally as he used the Windam IWSP's thrusters to slide sideways and shoot forward; though lacking a beam, the sharp blade bisected the GINN's waist, and the remains fell and exploded.  
>A shot from a Kerberos BuCUE impacted the blade and severed it. Sven tossed the useless hilt aside as he leapt over the enemy unit's follow-up attack, then he took down the BuCUE with a pair of beam cannon shots into its back. Alarms sounded as their screens showed more incoming enemy units.<p>

-"Man, these guys are persistent." Mudie mumbled, sounding irritated as she fired at the incoming machines. "I'm getting tired of it."  
>The course of the battle had separated her and Shams from Sven, who was at the moment engaging a second team of BuCUEs that had come in from the southwest. She withdrew from their hip storage compartments the Dagger-L's two anti-armor penetrators and threw them; the two small weapons found their targets, one embedding itself in a BuCUE's eye, the other stabbing the second in the weak joint at the base of its neck; then the explosive knives detonated, destroying their targets.<p>

-"Maybe they're all just looking for a good time with you, Mudie." Shams commented sarcastically as he cut loose, this time with the shell-firing "Todesblock Kai" plasma-sabot cannon, which obliterated a GINN that was targeting Mudie's machine.

His second's inattention would prove fatal, as more BuCUEs charged towards his position. Shams fired his 6-tube missile launcher, destroying one that was charging at him. But another BuCUEs came at him from behind, sabers ignited.  
>Too late he turned to counter, and the attack severed his Dagger's arm at the elbow, taking the Agni with it; He drew the carbine with his remaining hand and fired, but it avoided his attack, and its beam cannons next neatly shot his right leg out from under him.<p>

-"Shams!" Mudie yelled. She turned on the BuCUE that'd attacked him and fired her carbine, blasting off the beam cannons from its back. But a GINN that had closed in attacked her next.

"Oh shit. This is bad..." She muttered. In the instant it took for Mudie to destroy it with a carbine shot to the cockpit, three Kerberos BuCUEs had swarmed Shams.

-"Hold on...what the..!" Shams explained as the BuCUEs attacked. He brought his carbine to bear, but it was too late; The Kerberos BuCUE was equipped with two short, downward-facing beam "fangs", and one of the three drove its head down onto the Dagger's torso, piercing it and incinerating his arm.

-"SHAMS!" Mudie screamed, enraged. The three BuCUEs were literally mauling the Launcher Dagger, slamming their beam blade-equipped heads repeatedly into its torso. Not far away, Sven turned and saw; What was worse, two more BuCUEs were closing in on Mudie as well. He took flight and shot towards the Kerberos BuCUEs, firing his Windam IWSP's railguns and beam cannons.  
>Sven's Windam IWSP had one of his two swords left. He shot upwards as three Kerberos BuCUEs turned towards him and charged, and threw the weapon, which lodged itself in the upper body of one of the BuCUEs, bisecting head and cockpit.<p>

Drawing his beam rifle, he fired at one of the two remaining BuCUEs, while at the same time he raised the Windam IWSP's shield and unleashed its gatling gun; Both enemy units went down, one from the single shot that neatly pierced its cockpit; the other was torn to shreds by the hail of bullets from the gatling gun.

Meanwhile the other two BuCUEs charged Mudie. She leaped nimbly over their attacks, then snapped her Dagger's arms back and fired the two arm-mounted "Panzer Eisen" rocket anchors, which snagged the BuCUEs as they passed by. As she then landed, she pulled the arms together to the front. Both BuCUEs were lifted off their feet and swung in wide arcs that ended only when the two quadruped mobile suits slammed into each other far in front of their erstwhile target.  
>With no remaining enemy mobile suits, the battle was over.<p>

Ejecting both weapons, Mudie moved towards her fallen comrade as Sven did the same. Both exited their cockpits and looked at the mangled Dagger. Mudie bit her lip, holding back tears. Sven looked down at the fallen Dagger, and to her surprise Mudie saw a single tear roll down his cheek.

Several hours later their ship, the land battleship _Compton_, arrived. Shams's corpse was removed - his family would be notified. As for Sven and Mudie, they were summoned by the ship's commanding officer, a grizzled Colonel named Rankov, a veteran of the Bloody Valentine War. Once the two pilots stood in his office, still in their flight suits, he congratulated them, then informed them they were being reassigned.

-"I really hate to let you both go; but HQ's orders were that you be detached to the Seventh Pacific Fleet. Your machines are being resupplied and will be airlifted to Petropavlosk - you'll go out with them and meet your ship there."

-"Yes, sir." Sven said flatly. Behind him, Mudie said nothing, but simply nodded. Her eyes were red.

-"Listen," Colonel Rankov added, "I'm really sorry about Shams. He was a good kid." Neither of them said anything - no words were necessary. Nonetheless, both Sven and Mudie knew the Colonel meant what he said, and they appreciated it. They turned on their heels and left. "Good luck." he added, as the door slid closed

Not long afterwards, they were airborne. Sven and Mudie were alone in the massive aircraft's cabin.

-"I don't know how you can be so calm." Mudie commented icily as she looked at him. "Looking like you don't give a damn, even though..." Sven looked at her, but didn't say anything; He wasn't sure what to say.

"Well...it's like I told you my teacher used to say," she continued, "and I for one intend to see every last one of the bastards dead." She'd get her chance too, he knew. With the assignment they'd been given - the target they'd been sent after - he knew they'd both get the chance to engage ZAFT.

...After all, that was their job.


	4. Phase 04: Bared Fangs

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **The next couple of chapters basically cover Phases 8 through 11 of the series. Although for obvious reasons, I have moved the conversation between Athrun and Yzak, which in the series takes place in the PLANTs, to shortly prior to the Minerva's arrival in Orb. Here I have made some more major changes from the previous version, removing some of the scenes involving Cagalli and expanding on the encounter between Kira and Shinn.

* * *

><p><strong>PHASE 04: Bared Fangs<strong>

**CE 75; LHM-BB01 ****_Minerva  
><em>****Pacific Ocean, en route to Orb**

With the essential emergency repairs complete, the _Minerva_ began its journey towards Orb. The remains of Athrun's Murasame were dropped overboard; the remaining mobile suits had been returned to the hangar and repairs were under way on the ZAKUs. Inside the ship, Cagalli, Vice-President Marshall, and the other members of the memorial delegation were deep in discussion with Yzak in his cabin; Arthur had the bridge, for now.

"I wanted to thank you, Captain," said Scandinavian Prime Minister Lindemann, "for your timely rescue of our shuttle as well as your efforts to avert disaster up there. I think I speak for all of us when I say we owe you our lives, and so do countless others."

-"Thank you." Yzak replied, somewhat shortly. "It's unfortunate that we didn't entirely succeed."

-"Still, in spite of the circumstances," Cagalli next spoke, "There's no denying that your efforts prevented the situation from becoming far worse than it has."  
>Vice-President Marshall nodded. Though he did not share Cagalli's naïve optimism, he knew that had the entire mass of Junius Seven impacted Earth, the damage would have been exponentially worse than what had taken place.<p>

-"The ship is currently on its way to Orb." Yzak added. "Once there, you will all disembark, so that you may return to your respective nations. Now, if you'll excuse me." Yzak turned and left.

Cagalli next turned to Durendal, whom she was surprised to note had not yet spoken.  
>"Is there something on your mind, Princess?" the Chairman asked curiously. She wondered whether to broach the subject that had been bothering her, but Marshall interrupted.<p>

"Chairman Durendal, if I may ask: this ship - it's a new one, isn't it?"

-"Correct," Durendal answered, "the first new battleship fielded by our nation since the end of the war, three and a half years ago. As I understand it, it is heavily based on the Eternal, though its size and armament are more similar to those of the Alliance's Archangel-class; though I'm not very familiar with that particular vessel."

Marshall nodded; an ex-military man himself, he'd seen the legendary _Archangel_ in action at JOSH-A, years earlier; his unit had been nearly wiped out by the Atlantic Federation's Cyclops System, surviving only thanks to the warning issued by the _Archangel_ and the newly-arrived Freedom.

-"I don't see why it's even necessary; military strength of this kind can only lead to another war." Cagalli replied, looking uncomfortable.

-"Quite the contrary; strength is a necessity: There will always be conflict. I would have thought that you in particular would understand that distinction, Princess. After all, is that not why Orb maintains full military facilities?"

-"Please do me a favor and don't call me 'Princess'." she said irritably.

-"I beg your pardon, Representative Athha." Durendal said smoothly. "But perhaps you would appreciate a tour of the ship?"

Cagalli would have liked nothing better than to refuse, but Marshall was interested. The other delegates declined, and remained in Yzak's quarters. Cagalli, flanked by Athrun, as well as Vice-President Marshall, followed Durendal as he led them through the public sections of the ship, broadly describing its features. They were walking past a lounge, in which the ship's pilots were discussing recent events.

"Man, I still don't believe it." Vino commented. "Just like that, somebody dropped Junius Seven on Earth; all because of Chairman Zala?"

-"Don't kid yourself, Vino. That's probably just their own messed up reasoning, using Chairman Zala's name like that." Yolant replied.

-"I'd have to agree," Rey commented, "it seems like they used the late Chairman's arguments to justify their own atrocities. Nothing more."

Suddenly, they heard, from outside, Cagalli speaking to Chairman Durendal. "You said that strength is necessary, because there would always be conflict." she was saying.

- "I did." Durendal replied slowly.

- "But why would you even need it in the first place?" Cagalli asked, her voice rising. "We made a vow not to repeat the tragedies of the past, did we not? Weren't we - all of us - committed to ensuring a lasting peace after the horrors of the past war?" Durendal opened his mouth to reply, when another voice interrupted.

-"Idealistic nonsense has always been a specialty of the Athhas, hasn't it?" All of them turned towards the speaker; to nobody's surprise, it was Shinn, who glared angrily up at Cagalli.

She had initially thought, after his outburst on the deck, that it had been what she had said that had angered him. But now, the hatred she saw in those blood-red eyes shocked her as she realized that it had been because it was her specifically that he had reacted so violently. She wondered why, nor was she the only one.

-"Shinn. Watch what you say." Rey cut across him as Cagalli turned towards him. She opened her mouth to speak, but Athrun intervened, looking sternly across at the younger man.

-"I take it you don't much care for Orb. Why is that? Because if you're trying to pick a fight with the Representative for some trivial, unrelated reason, I..."

-"SHUT UP!" Shinn yelled angrily, and stalked across the room to stand directly in front of Athrun. "Unrelated? Trivial? You don't know what the hell you're talking about...I lost my entire family because of the Athhas!"

Behind Athrun, Cagalli stepped back, frightened by his rage, as Shinn looked past Athrun and straight at her. "That's right: I was born in Orb. And my family...they believed in the nation, in your so-called ideals. And in the end, they were killed at Onogoro! When you spouted off that garbage about "defending the nation's justice", did you ever stop to think about how many lives would be lost as a result? So don't talk as if you know everything when you haven't got a clue." And he walked past them both and left the room.

Later in the quarters that had been provided for them, Cagalli broke down, crying as she remembered how much her father had suffered and how much he - and she - had given up for Orb's sake. And yet...

"Cagalli, don't blame yourself." Athrun said, attempting to comfort her. "We knew there were going to be people like him out there. He just...he simply doesn't understand."

The worst part of it was, Athrun understood how Shinn felt; five years ago, when his mother and 243,720 others had been murdered in the Bloody Valentine Tragedy, he had, at first, felt much the same. So had his father - and look where that had ended. He only hoped that eventually, this guy would understand...

Cagalli was soon fast asleep. As for Athrun, he left the room and thought he would head up to the bridge to see Yzak. As he passed the door that led to the outer deck, he saw that an impromptu firing range had been set up. And he recognized the same pilot - Shinn, his name was. He stepped closer. The kid was a good shot, he had to admit. Then he seemed to sense that someone was behind him, and he turned.

"Oh, it's you." He said, removing his ear protectors. "What do you want?"

-"To talk to you." Athrun replied. "Your name's Shinn, isn't it?"

-"Shinn Asuka." He nodded, still glaring at Athrun.

-"Shinn. Listen, there's a couple of things I needed to talk to you about. First off, I wanted to apologize about what I said in there - I didn't know."

The statement caught Shinn off-guard. Dropping his angry expression, he looked at Athrun. "The second thing is, I don't think it was all that fair of you to attack Cagalli the way you did in there. But I do understand why you feel that way."

Shinn scoffed, and Athrun continued. "You lost your family - I know how that feels; my mother died in the Bloody Valentine. When I saw what happened, I felt the same way you do now. But during the war, I saw things. I saw what that kind of rage could do." Athrun continued. "And I knew that I had to do something; otherwise..." He left the statement unfinished, but Shinn understood what he meant; The pilots of those GINNs were like that. He stayed silent for a few moments.

"Also, remember one other thing: You're angry at the Athhas because you think they're responsible for your family's death. But Cagalli had nothing to do with the decisions that resulted in that attack by the Alliance; and she too lost the only family she had in that battle. So try to at least show a little restraint." On that note, Athrun turned and headed back inside, leaving Shinn alone with his thoughts.

Several days later, as the ship continued to sail towards Orb, Athrun Zala stood alone on the _Minerva_'s stern deck, thinking. In the past few days, he'd been keeping an eye on Shinn, and noticed that there had been some improvement; though he feared the kid would never accept Cagalli, he was at least less violently hostile towards her. He was just thinking of heading back inside when he heard footsteps, and was surprised to see Yzak had come out as well.

"Arthur has the bridge right now. I figured I might as well take a minute to talk to you." He said shortly. After a few moments, he continued "It's been over three years. You've been in Orb the whole time?"

-"Yeah." Athrun replied. "I don't really get up to the PLANTs anymore. I'd thought of going after the memorial ceremony - I've been meaning to visit the graves of Nicol and the others..."

-"But then this happened." Yzak interrupted. "And Orb? What do you think they're going to do next?"

-"I'm honestly not sure." Athrun answered, pensive. Orb's political situation these days was...precarious. The two old friends stood in silence for a few moments, before Yzak spoke again.

-"You should come back, Athrun. To the PLANTs." Athrun looked over at Yzak, surprised, as the other continued. "I'm sure there'll be some obstacles, but I'll do everything I can."

-"Yeah, but I..." Athrun started to say, but Yzak interrupted.

-"The truth is, I probably should've died a long time ago. After what I did, I was going to be executed. Dearka, too." Yzak said. Athrun stared, shocked at the statement. "But Chairman Durendal pardoned us both. He said something at the time: "Though it was the adults who started the war, it was the young who fought it. And if we label the ones who made a mistake "criminals" and punish them, then where will the future leaders of the PLANTs come from?"

Athrun almost shook his head - that sounded exactly like Durendal, or at least such was his impression of the man.

-"Yzak..." Athrun said, surprised that Yzak, who had in the past been so hostile towards him, would speak to him like this.

-"Combat is the only thing I know." Yzak said. "But also, I think that I can make a difference - for the PLANTs, for the friends who died...that's why you have to do something too. You have the ability - hell, you're a better pilot than I am! So why let that go to waste?"

Yzak turned away and headed back toward the ship. "Just...think about it." Then after a moment, he added "And if you tell _anybody_ what I just said, I'll kill you!"  
>Athrun smiled, but he soon returned inside as well, still unsure of what to do next.<p>

Soon enough, Athrun was looking upon a familiar sight as the _Minerva_ finally arrived. On the bridge, Yzak had taken over for docking maneuvers.  
>"Starboard 2 degrees, decelerate 20%." The helmsman, Malik, repeated the instruction as he obeyed.<p>

- "Port Control One to Sierra Antares One, arrival confirmed." The transmission came in from Orb's port control authority. "From this point on, link nav-com to guidance channel Iota Bravo. You are clear for port entry."

- "Sierra Antares One." Yzak replied. "Iota Bravo channel confirmed, linking nav-com." Once the computers were linked, the ship rotated 180 degrees and slowly pulled into the dock in reverse, then stopped.

On the dock, a small group of people stood waiting. Among them were Unato Ema Seiran, the current Prime Minister of Orb, and his son Yuna Roma. Both men sat on Orb's Council of Emirs, and both were known to sympathize with the Atlantic Federation. Several other members of the Council were also present.  
>"So this is the <em>Minerva<em>, ZAFT's latest and most advanced warship," Unato Ema commented. "Seems our princess has returned home with trouble."

-"It can't be helped, Father." Yuna replied. "I'm sure Cagalli never imagined she'd be involved in something like this. And we can't exactly rebuff the ship that's safely returned our head of state...for now."

Moments later, Cagalli was the first one to disembark, closely followed by her bodyguard. She remarked that Mina was absent, which troubled her. She would need to speak with her later.  
>"It's good to see you back, Representative." Unato Ema said, bowing. The others did likewise, as the Prime Minister continued "It's a relief to see you return home safely at last."<p>

-"I'm sorry that I couldn't be here during this crucial time. Thank you for taking care of things in my absence. Please bring me up to date on the current situation as soon as possible." Cagalli replied. Unato Ema nodded, then turned to the two ZAFT officers, who saluted.

-"I'm Yzak Joule, Captain of the ZAFT ship _Minerva_." Said the taller of the two, a hard-looking man in a white uniform, a thin, ugly scar on his face.

-"Arthur Trine, Executive Officer." The other introduced himself.

-"I am Unato Ema Seiran, Prime Minister of the Orb Union. We are most grateful to you for bringing our Chief Representative back unharmed."

-"Thank you," Yzak said, "though what happened was unexpected, we regret very much that Representative Athha had to go through all that trouble. Furthermore, we express our condolences for your losses in this tragedy." His tone of voice was respectfully impassive, but in the back of his mind he thought _'I don't trust this pig. Plain as day he doesn't want us here.'_

-"I appreciate your thoughtfulness." Seiran replied. He then turned to Cagalli and addressed her. "We should make our way to the administrative building. I'm sorry to have to insist on this immediately upon your return, but there are a number of things we must report."

As the group turned to leave, Yuna put his arm around Cagalli's shoulder, then looked condescendingly back at "Alex".  
>"Oh, and we're grateful for your services, Alex. You may submit your report later - for now, get some rest. We might ask you to act as an intermediary between us and the PLANTs in the future."<p>

-"Of course." Alex said.

-"Pussy." Yzak muttered under his breath, low enough that only Athrun, standing right next to him, heard.

Shortly thereafter, numerous trucks carrying supplies and personnel arrived from Morgenröte, and repairs were begun on the _Minerva. _Yzak approached Matt Aves, the ship's chief maintenance and mechanical officer, with specific instructions.  
>"Listen, I think we should be fine if we leave the ship's hull repairs to Morgenröte, but I want you to make sure your crew handles all the internal repairs; They've promised us whatever materials we need, so make sure you do a perfect job."<p>

-"Yessir." Aves replied, and Yzak dismissed him. Then, to Yzak's annoyance, Arthur approached.

-"Are you sure about this, Captain?" he asked. "There's nothing wrong with resupplying here, but personally I think we should hold off on the repairs until we get to Carpentaria."

-"Duly noted, Arthur. I can certainly see your point, but I think we'll have them repair the ship's hull anyway."

-"You certainly don't want to jeopardize safety just to keep a military secret." Said a female voice. Yzak turned and saw two people approaching. A man, short, broad and gruff-looking, and a woman. She had short, brown hair, and Yzak thought she looked familiar, but couldn't quite place where he might've seen her before. "It can be pretty tough on a commander if a ship - especially a warship - isn't in top form at all times."

-"And you are?..." Yzak asked, raising an eyebrow. Her tone indicated that she spoke from experience, yet her attire was that of a civilian mechanic.

-"I beg your pardon. I'm Maria Vernes, of Shipbuilding Division B. I'm in charge of your ship's work crew."

-"Yzak Joule. Captain of the _Minerva_ and commander of the Joule Team. Pleasure meeting you." Yzak replied, shaking the woman's hands. As he did, he couldn't shake off the feeling that he knew this woman from somewhere before...but where? The answer, for now, eluded him.

After a few more minutes' small talk, Vernes and her surly companion - who hadn't said a word - left. Yzak noticed Arthur still staring after the woman, and he smacked the other man in the back of the head.

-"Stop drooling, you pervert. And do your job - make sure nobody except Aves and his team gets inside the ship; I want these Morgenröte guys working on external repair only."

-"Y...Yes sir!" Arthur stammered, and headed off.

Yzak, for his part, headed back to his quarters, thinking. Morgenröte...There was something there. Maybe had he seen her during their brief covert insertion into the country, years before? No, that wasn't it...but it had something to do, somehow, with Morgenröte...  
>And then he had it.<p>

Onboard the ship, Shinn, Rey, and Luna were in the rec room.  
>"So, we're in Orb." Lunamaria said. "You know, I've never been here before. You think they'll let us disembark?<p>

-"It's entirely possible." Rey replied. We're likely to be here for several days until repairs are complete and the ship is resupplied. The Captain might allow limited shore leave. "What do you think, Shinn?"

-"I really don't care." the latter said curtly, shrugging. "Just as long as we're out of here as soon as possible."

-"I don't think we'll be here any longer than the Captain deems necessary." Rey said in a conciliatory tone, reluctant to set Shinn off again - as they had seen, the subject of Orb was a touchy one. "And even if the Captain grants us shore leave while the ship's repaired, I'm sure he won't mind if you prefer to stay onboard.

-"Still, with what just happened," Luna started carefully, "With Junius Seven and all...what do you think will happen? Do you think the Alliance..."

-"The terrorists were using ZAFT mobile suits." Rey said. "And that battleship that attacked us was deploying Alliance Daggers. I think we have to assume they may try to blame the PLANTs."

-"Yeah, you're right." Shinn said harshly. "Bastards'll probably use the attack as an excuse to declare war on us." The idea horrified Lunamaria, but she addressed Shinn

-"Be fair, Shinn; under President Baum, the Eurasian Federation at least has made significant strides in cooperating with the PLANTs." she countered. "And remember how quickly they offered to help our relief forces."

-"That's true - look at what happened in the Persian Gulf. The Eurasian military sent their newest land battleship, and they still welcomed the forces we sent from Gibraltar to assist after the attack was thwarted." Rey replied. "Unfortunately, Shinn might still be right. The Atlantic Federation and the Republic of East Asia remain strongly anti-Coordinator, and the government of South America is divided even though they supported the PLANTs prior to the war. It's not beyond possible that the others might pressure Baum into supporting a declaration of war."

-"I bet that's exactly what they'll do." Shinn sneered.

-"But what about Orb?" Lunamaria asked. "They're not going to...they're not gonna side with them, right?"

-"I don't know." Rey said. "Ideally not, since Orb is a neutral nation. Either way, hopefully by the time anything happens - if it does - we'll be gone and on our way to Carpentaria.

Behind Rey, Shinn stared darkly out the window, from which he could see the shore of the little nation he had once called home.

While this was going on, Athrun had returned to his quarters, a small apartment on the premises of Orb's military HQ. After some time spent thinking about what he'd seen and heard, he decided he had to go out. He put on his jacket and went out to his car, a sleek, low-slung black sports car.

Then he left, driving somewhat faster than was reasonable. He soon reached his destination, and found that the small house he'd been looking for had been destroyed. He slowed down and kept going until he found what he'd been looking for: Standing on the coast, surrounded by children, was Lacus Clyne. Not far away was Kira Yamato. He pulled the car over and stepped out.

"Hey, it's Athrun!" One of the children said as he spotted him.

-"No, it's Alex!" said another, and as he approached the kids ran towards him, arguing all the way about his name.

-Lacus and Kira still followed. The latter was pale, his features drawn and his hair thinner than it had been, but he smiled as he greeted his old friend.

-"Athrun."

-"Welcome back," said Lacus. Once Athrun's fiancée, now she lived with Kira. "That was quite the trip."

-"I hear you had quite the time too," Athrun said with a small smile, "The house washed away, and I hear you moved over to the orphanage. Are you guys okay?"

Judging from their reactions the kids were fine, but they were getting a bit loud. Lacus noticed this, and took them back down to the beach so that Kira and Athrun could talk. From wherever he'd been perched, Birdy flew over, landing on Kira's shoulder. When Lacus yelled for them to go ahead, saying she'd bring the kids back later, both got into his car and Athrun drove off.

"Everyone knows by now what caused that thing to fall, right?" Athrun asked. Kira nodded. "One of them told me...he called it his daughter's tombstone, and he said that the only true path for Coordinators was the one Patrick Zala...the one my father had chosen."

-"You fought?" Kira asked after a moment.

-"I led the memorial delegation's mobile suit escort team. We got to Junius Seven, and there they were." As they pulled into the large house that now housed Reverend Malchio's orphanage, and Athrun stopped the car, he asked. "Remember that time we were both here in Orb? I asked you what should we really be fighting against, and how are we supposed to do it?"

-"Yeah."

-"Then you told Dearka and I, we can all look for that answer, together...but...I still haven't found the answer."

-"A long time ago, Lacus told me something." Kira said after a while. "She said "Neither will alone, nor strength alone will be enough". I didn't understand at the time, but now that I look back I think I know what she meant. I was in the PLANTs at the time; it was just before ZAFT attacked JOSH-A." Athrun looked over at his friend. In three and a half years, he had never heard him talk about this; that short period of time, after he had nearly killed him. Athrun knew this had to be at the time, or shortly before, they had stolen the Freedom. "At the time, more than anything I wanted to get back to Earth; because I knew that my friends were down there, and I had to protect them." Kira turned to look at Athrun. "Before that, I was lost; I didn't really know what to do. But that was my reason for fighting. And I think that when you find it, find what it is you should really be fighting for, you'll know."

-"Thanks." Athrun said sincerely. Soon afterwards, the car pulled into the driveway for the mansion that had been built to house Reverend Malchio's orphanage, and where several of their old comrades, such as Commander Waltfeld, also resided. Kira's parents were there too, and his mother, Caridad Yamato, greeted both of them as they arrived. The three of them entered the mansion, where they waited for Lacus and the children to return.

Meanwhile at the Orb government's headquarters, Cagalli had returned to her office and was hard at work trying to coordinate efforts to send relief to areas of the nation that had been affected by the fall; thankfully the damage, while widespread and in places quite considerable, was not so far beyond their ability to deal with.

She'd been in a foul mood since leaving a meeting of the Council of Emirs, the main governing body of Orb. The Seirans and several others were pushing to enter into an alliance with the Atlantic Federation, a possibility that she found utterly repellant. Thankfully, she had been able to stonewall them, with assistance from Rondo Mina Sahaku, the commander of Orb's military and sole controller of _Ame-no-Mihashira_, an incomplete orbital elevator converted into a space fortress, which served as home base for the nation's small but efficient space port.  
>In other good news, Durendal had taken a shuttle back to the PLANTs, while a second shuttle carried the delegation members from the various nations of Earth had also left.<p>

Rondo Mina Sahaku's support, though reassuring, had come as a surprise to Cagalli. Tall and darkly elegant, she and her twin brother had been fierce enemies of her father, and it had been them who had masterminded, during the Bloody Valentine War, Morgenröte's secret deal with the Atlantic Federation's National Defense Industries to produce the original GAT-X series.  
>However since the death of her brother, Mina had proven to be Cagalli's staunchest and most valuable supporter in the Orb government. After the Council meeting, Mina had accepted from Cagalli a very delicate assignment, and she had left soon afterwards.<p>

Suddenly, she looked up and out through her open office door, where she was very surprised to see that Unato Ema, Yuna, and a couple of their supporters on the Council were waiting outside, looking askance at the dark-skinned, barrel-chested Ledonir Kisaka, who stood nearby. Kisaka had also been a valuable friend and ally since the War, and she trusted him implicitly.

"What is it now?" she mumbled. If those two were here, it could only mean more bad news. Reluctantly, she motioned for both of them to enter.  
>"What is it?" She asked shortly.<p>

-"The Alliance has issued an ultimatum to the PLANTs, demanding that they disarm their forces, hand over the terrorists responsible for the Junius Seven attack, and that the Supreme Council be disbanded, with the new administration subject to Alliance supervision."

-"That's absolutely ludicrous. There's got to be some kind of mistake!"

-"No," Unato disagreed, "there's no mistake about it - the Atlantic Federation and the rest of the Alliance have released a joint statement; should the PLANTs refuse to agree to these demands, they'll be declared a hostile enemy state and a threat to humanity. The Alliance warns it will do whatever it takes, including the use of force, to eliminate the threat."

-"The PLANTs have until midnight to comply." Yuna added, looking condescendingly down at her.

-"Damn it." Cagalli swore under her breath. Outside, the sun was setting. She drew a pocket watch from an inside pocket. Six o'clock. Six hours before the Alliance, she knew, would declare war on the PLANTs. She looked over at Yuna, thinking of how much she would love to put him in his place...ideally with a well-placed punch. She refrained, and instead asked coldly.

-"Is that all?" Unato Ema nodded, his expression impassive. Yuna looked smug. The others seemed taken aback by her tone. "Then get out. It's late, and I still have things to do before the end of the day." As they left, she addressed the big colonel, who in Athrun's absence seemed to have decided to take his place as her bodyguard. "Let Myrna know that I'll probably be eating dinner here at the office." He nodded impassively, then left, closing the door. She locked it, and got back to work.

Meanwhile, as Rey had predicted the _Minerva_'s crew had been granted shore leave. Shinn had initially planned to remain onboard, however he changed his mind. Changing into civilian attire, he left the ship on foot, alone.  
>Luna, Vino, Yolant and the others had gone into the city, but his destination was along the coast.<p>

The sun was setting when he arrived in a large, elegant park had been built, with a tall pillar standing as a memorial. When he had last walked along this shore, it had been undeveloped, just a narrow dirt path surrounded by trees. But now there were flowers, and stone-paved walkways. The place where his family had been taken from him obliterated by an artificial beauty. As he looked around, he found himself remembering that day - June 15th, CE 71, the day his entire world had been destroyed.

As he looked around, tears streaming down his face as he remembered the horror of that day, Shinn suddenly he saw something - a large stone standing at the shoreline. There were flowers around it too, and someone was standing there. Wiping the tears from his eyes, Shinn walked closer.  
>"Is it...a memorial?" He asked the stranger. Though he looked only a little older than Shinn, the stranger's brown hair was thin and he looked pale, almost sickly. He nodded.<p>

-"Yeah, looks like it. I'm not too sure though - y'see, it's the first time I come here myself." The other man replied, before turning away. In the background, Shinn heard singing, the voice vaguely familiar. "The flowers are finally starting to bloom." he said. "Unfortunately, they'll wither eventually because of the spray from the breaking waves."

-"Perhaps it means they can't be fooled." Shinn replied, "No matter how beautiful the flowers are, people will always eventually just wipe them out."

-The stranger looked at him, puzzled.

-"Sorry. I didn't mean anything by that." Shinn apologized.

-"It's okay." The other man said. Then, hesitantly, he continued. "I saw you were crying, earlier. Did you...lose someone?"

-"My family." Shinn nodded as he replied. He indicated the spot where he had been standing. "It was right over there. The four of us - my parents and I, as well as my little sister - we were trying to get to the shore, to evacuate when the Alliance attacked. Her phone fell out of her purse, and I cut down the hill to try and get it." He withdrew the phone from his pocket. "As I was picking it up, there was an explosion, and I was thrown to the bottom of the hill. A mobile suit had fired a shot that had hit the hill...all of them were killed."

-"I...I'm sorry." The stranger replied.

-"Thanks." Shinn said. The young man had never spoken of this to anyone - not even Rey. And yet, for some reason, he was telling this man whose name he didn't even know. But there was something about him that made Shinn think he could be trusted. "I'll never forget that machine. " he said slowly. "The mobile suit that murdered my family. I saw it as I looked up, after it happened. It was black and white, with large blue wings. I never saw it again."

-"I see." The other man said slowly.

-"I went up to the PLANTs after that. I haven't been back here since." Shinn said.

-"Oh. You were on that ZAFT ship that docked yesterday." The other man said, a sudden look of understanding in his eyes. "Then I guess I should thank you for your help - I can't imagine how much worse it might have been if you hadn't done so much."

-"Thank you." Shinn said. Then he held out his hand. "My name is Shinn Asuka." The other man approached, and up close Shinn saw that he did indeed look in poor health. He shook his hand.

-"I'm Kira. Kira Yamato." At that moment, the woman who'd been singing walked up, but Shinn didn't really notice her. His eyes were fixed on Kira, who continued, "It's good to meet you."

Shinn nodded, and then turned away, and looked for a moment out west, towards the ocean, where the sun was setting. After a moment, he started heading back out and left, walking slowly away down the hill and back to base.

**11:55 PM; Lagrange Point 5, near the PLANT homeland**

Since President Franklin Copeland had issued his ultimatum, the Atlantic Federation had dispatched the entirety of their lunar fleet from the moon, while across the PLANTs were deployed every team that was ready for combat, including the _Voltaire_, and _Rousseau_ of the Hahnenfuss Team. The last line of defense was the gigantic mega-carrier _Gondwana_, a massive spacecraft that itself carried nearly two hundred mobile suits, almost half the present defense force.

Then, at midnight, the attack began.

The Alliance ships all launched their mobile suits, many equipped with heavy anti-MS bombardment equipment - the new Doppelhorn Strikers. Meanwhile, the ZAFT defenses launched. On the _Voltaire_, Dearka was first to launch in his Gunner ZAKU. Shiho followed in her GuAIZ. At the same time, the _Robespierre_ began launching its own mobile suits; first out the ramp was the same orange Blaze ZAKU, followed by a mix of GuAIZ and GuAIZ-Rs.  
>"First wave is entering firing range; all units, weapons free!" She communicated, and they opened fire.<p>

It was a massacre; though outnumbered and in many cases outgunned, the GuAIZ and even the GuAIZ-R had the advantage in maneuverability, and soon casualties were mounting high on both sides. The orange Blaze ZAKU that was leading the Hawkins Team tore through enemy formations with astonishing ease, and before anyone could so much as fire on him had taken out two enemy ships. The Hawkins Team's other mobile suits did nearly as well, too. For her part, Shiho soon found herself engaging multiple enemy Daggers, which tried to use the slim advantage their numerical superiority provided. Dodging an initial attack and blocking a second, Shiho used the GuAIZ's speed and maneuverability to close in to the nearest Dagger, goring it with the twin beam blades. Turning on the others, she fired the beam rifle towards one of the others, taking it out with a double-tap to the torso.

In that split second, the last Dagger closed in, drawing a beam saber and attempting to slice off the GuAIZ's rifle arm. Shifting slightly, she parried with the GuAIZ's beam blades, then fired the two hip-mounted extensional arrestors, which tore the Dagger's legs off, throwing it slightly off-balance. She leveled the rifle against the cockpit block and fired at point-blank range. Shoving the ruined Dagger away, she moved out and continued to engage the enemy as they closed in.

Dearka, meanwhile, was providing long-range fire support using his Gunner ZAKU, targeting any enemy Dagger he saw with Doppelhorn Strikers, using the greater range of his high-energy long-range beam cannon to pick them off before they could do too much damage.

"The Naturals are fighting pretty smart, for once." He muttered. "They're keeping their ships way in the back, where we can't get to them."

He noticed that a formation of Daggers slipped past the first line of defense and moved in to attack the _Voltaire_. He fired a volley of missiles from the launcher on his ZAKU's back, following it up with a shot from the cannon. Two Daggers went down in the initial volley, and the other narrowly dodged the canon, only to fall victim to one of the Hahnenfuss Team's GuAIZ-Rs, which took it out with paired shots from its hip-mounted "Pollux" railguns. Though the battle was initially close to evenly matched, it became clear very quickly that the longer it went on, the more likely it would be that the Alliance would be defeated. Or so it seemed.

However, the Alliance had made their plans carefully, and thus far undetected by the PLANTs, a second force was waiting, hidden.  
>"The main fleet has engaged the enemy, sir!" Said the CIC officer on the leader of that fleet, the Agamemnon-class <em>Antinous<em>.

-"Good," said its captain, sounding pleased. "Everything is going as planned. Let's get started here, too."  
>The <em>Antinous, Eurymachus, Demoptolemus<em>, and _Polybus_ took off as the captain of the _Antinous_ broadcast to his fellows "We shall show the Coordinators once and for all that their kind has no place in our blue and pure world!"

All four ships began launching their mobile suits. Behind them, the six Nelson-class ships that made up the rest of the fleet did likewise. Every mobile suit carried the same equipment: Two enormous back-mounted, single-shot missile launchers, each carrying a single Mk5 nuclear missile.

However, a single GINN Long Range Reconnaissance Type spotted the mobile suits as they were closing. Despite its antiquated design, no suitable replacement for the GINN LRRT had yet been developed, so it remained in service long after the standard GINN, as well as the CGUE, had been retired. Recognizing the payload of the enemy machines, the pilot immediately relayed that information to the PLANTs, as well as to the _Gondwana_.

"DEARKA!" Shiho yelled as she received the news. "Enemy units incoming from polar orbit! The bastards are carrying nukes!"

-"DAMN IT!" the other man roared in frustration. "These guys we're fighting...they're just decoys!"

Both machines shot upwards, moving in as quickly as possible to intercept the nuclear attack force before they could launch. Unfortunately, they were too late. Every one of the Alliance mobile suits fired both their missiles, with their deadly one-megaton nuclear payload.

"We're too late!" Dearka yelled.

When the news arrived, three Nazca-class ships that had been standing by were launched from ZAFT's primary military station at Aprilius. Among them was the _Marie Curie, _carrying new equipment which totally occupied its hangar bay and protruded far out past the end of the ship's bow. Additional components were mounted over both its lateral thruster units. On its bridge, the tension was so high that even the Captain was shaking with nerves. They carried an untested, experimental weapon system, and the lives of every man, woman and child in the PLANTs rested on their shoulders.

"All systems, status normal." Came the call from the ship's weapons station. "Quantum fresnel terminals online. Operation time, seven seconds. Now tracking targets."

"We only get one shot; bring them in as close as possible." The captain ordered.

-"Pre-charge, online. Activating Stampeder. Ready to fire."

-"FIRE."

There was a flash of light from the equipment on the ship's bow, which spread outward until it engulfed every missile fired at the PLANTs. Deep inside each missile's warhead, the action of the Neutron Stampeder forcibly triggered a runaway fission reaction, literally ripping apart the volatile radioactive core and forcing the missiles to detonate well clear of their target. Nor did the devastation stop there. The blast wave swept past the missiles until it engulfed the mobile suits that had fired the missiles, obliterating every last one of them. Then it continued until it reached the ships, which still carried dozens of nuclear warheads in their holds, which all detonated at once; the catastrophic nuclear explosions that wiped out the fleet as a result were so enormous that anyone who happened to be looking up towards the PLANTs from Earth was able to see them.

On Aprilius One, the Supreme Council in its entirety stood in the spacious office allotted to the Chairman; Durendal himself seated at his desk, every eye was turned to the screen that showed the battle, including the destruction of the nukes, only a short distance from their target.  
>"All nuclear missiles confirmed destroyed. The nuclear attack fleet has been totally wiped out." A collective sigh of relief swept through the room.<p>

-"That was a close call," said Kasim, his relief obvious.

-"Thank goodness the Stampeder made it in time." Leitner concurred.

-"Maybe, but it was a one-shot weapon; with its quantum fresnels melted and the breaker activated, the system is no longer functional." Ezalia Joule intervened.

-"I don't think it'll work again - they'll be ready for it next time." concurred Eileen Canaver, and Parnell Jesek nodded

-"In any case, the _Gondwana_ reports that the Alliance fleet is withdrawing back to their lunar base." Ezalia concluded. "This battle is over." It was Durendal himself who spoke next, looking around at the other members of the Supreme Council.

-"I can only hope that this reversal puts an end to things...at least, for now."


	5. Phase 05: Chosen Paths

**PHASE 05: Chosen Paths **

The morning following the Alliance's declaration of war and the subsequent attack, Athrun returned to Cagalli's residence. He had made a decision, and he needed to talk to her first.  
>"Athrun!" Cagalli said as she walked in, looking exhausted. "I don't really have a lot of time to talk, I'll be in cabinet meetings all morning and I'm waiting on a report from Mina. But I hope you're not..."<p>

-"Don't worry about it, I understand. Anyway, what's the Orb government's position?" He asked. From Cagalli's sudden silence he knew they were looking at a probable worst-case scenario. "I see."

-"I guess given the circumstances it's not surprising." Cagalli replied. "Although we didn't suffer as bad as some other places, Orb was still affected. "I understand what they're saying, but that doesn't mean we should join the people who hate the PLANTs and are shouting for revenge, especially..."

-"But I take it you don't plan on taking that lying down. Otherwise you wouldn't have gone to Mina Sahaku for assistance." Athrun said pointedly, and Cagalli nodded. Athrun continued "Listen Cagalli, I wanted to let you know that I'm going up to the PLANTs. I hate to do this given the current situation, but I can't afford to just sit here. I'm worried about what the PLANTs might do."

-"Athrun, are you sure...?"

-"Given Chairman Durendal's leadership I think we can rule out the worst-case scenario; all the same, they were attacked with nuclear weapons - again. On top of that, with the Junius Seven incident...If this situation gets any worse, then everything we've been working for these last four years will all come to nothing. I know you're doing everything you can down here; I have to try and do what I can to prevent it too."

Late that afternoon, a Heli landed at the residence to pick him up and take him to Onogoro, where Cagalli's shuttle, which they had previously used to head into orbit for the inspection, was on standby. Before boarding, Athrun pulled Cagalli aside.

"Look, I know about the whole situation with you and Yuna Roma. But I don't have to like it." He fished a ring out of his pocket and slipped it on her finger.

-"What?" She looked up at Athrun, who was blushing. The sight was almost comical, but she wasn't about to laugh. She started blushing as well. "I...this is no way to give a woman a ring, you idiot!"

-"Sorry about that." He said. This time, she did laugh.

-"Take care. Keep in touch." She said after a while, looking at him.

-"Yeah. Hang in there, Cagalli." He answered. Then he leaned in and kissed her. When they separated, he looked at her for a moment longer, then turned away and boarded the Heli.

As the small craft took off, Cagalli turned and headed back inside. She needed to get back to her office - she was expecting a phone call, which came within a few minutes of her arrival.

"Yes? Good. How are you progressing so far?" she listened for a few moments, her expression brightening. At last a ray of hope, slender as it was. The telephone conversation lasted nearly forty-five minutes, and by the end of the call Cagalli slumped in her chair and leaned back, smiling for the first time in days. If all went well, she would have exactly what she needed in a few days' time...

After a rather uneventful flight, the shuttle carrying Athrun arrived in the PLANTs, where he was greeted by an unremarkable man in civilian attire. The man worked for Durendal and addressed him as "Mr. Alex".

"Thank you for meeting me. How does the situation look?" Athrun asked.

-"Not good. The citizens of the PLANTs are furious," the aide continued, "Chairman Durendal is continuing to attempt to pursue negotiations, but some are beginning to call him weak because of it. I've told them you're here as an envoy from Representative Athha, but given the situation a meeting may not be possible."

-"I understand."

-It was quite some time, but eventually Athrun was led to Durendal's office. It was nearly one o'clock in the morning, but evidently the Chairman had been busy.

-"Ah, Alex. Or rather, Athrun. Sorry for having to make you wait, but the situation developed rather more quickly than I could have anticipated." Durendal said pleasantly. "Thankfully, we were able to prevent the Alliance's nuclear attack from succeeding. Please have a seat." Durendal requested, motioning towards a pair of small seats around a low table near the front of the office.

Athrun sat down across from Durendal, who then continued speaking. "Although their course of action was not entirely unexpected, it still came as a great shock to me; the way they forced through a declaration of war was unusual enough to begin with, but for them to go straight to the nuclear option... The Alliance may have pulled back for now, but I don't doubt that their plans are unchanged. In addition, our own situation is nothing short of panic."

-"I see." Athrun said. "What steps do you plan to take to deal with this situation?"

Durendal did not answer immediately, but looked troubled. This was the third time nuclear weapons were fired at the PLANTs, and the attack had, once again, been only narrowly averted. The panic among the civilian population of the 119 colonies was almost total, and in many places riots were breaking out. Many were crying out for war, saying that force should be met with force.

"Fighting is not the answer." Athrun continued, "If we attack them now, then the entire world will be dragged into another war, and everything we've been working towards these past years will have been for nothing! Please, you can't let that happen."

-"Athrun..." Durendal started, then stood and walked towards his desk. "To be perfectly honest, I am glad you came up here. I believe that it is you, and people who feel the way you do that will be able to save this world. Some may say I'm a dreamer, but that at least is my hope."

Suddenly the display in the office changed, as did numerous public display screens as well as televisions throughout the PLANTs. It had been showing a news broadcast talking about the attack and its repercussions among the citizens of the PLANTs. Athrun gaped as he saw what he first thought was Lacus, though he soon realized it wasn't; however, the resemblance was uncanny - her face, her hair and even her eyes were a perfect match. She began to speak, an impassioned plea to the enraged citizens of the PLANTs. Her mannerisms, her expressions, even her voice was identical. And then she began to sing.  
>Athrun recognized the song; it was the last Lacus had written before leaving the PLANTs, and she had only ever performed it in public once. Athrun had been on Earth at the time, but he'd seen a video recording of the performance. Whoever she really was, this girl was an almost perfect duplicate of Lacus; she could've been her twin.<p>

Durendal turned off the display as he turned to Athrun with a knowing smile.  
>"I'm sure you understand what's happening, here." He said. "I'll freely admit this plot is somewhat...dishonest. However, I had no choice. Even now, Lacus Clyne has tremendous power to influence, far beyond my own. For now I have a need of her strengths. Just as I need your own unique strengths."<p>

-"My strengths?..." Athrun started to ask, confused.

-"Shall we go for a walk?" Durendal asked enigmatically. Athrun in tow, Durendal went to a hangar deep within Aprilius - the very same hangar where, years before, Athrun himself had taken delivery of the Justice Gundam. There, as the lights came on, Athrun saw a sleek new machine.

"The ZGMF-X23S Saviour. Though its capabilities differ, this machine was developed simultaneously with the Impulse." Durendal said. "You might be interested to learn that the data used to create it came in part from the Aegis, as well as the Freedom and Justice. Now, if I said I wanted to entrust this machine to you, what would you do?"

-"Are you asking me to return to ZAFT?" Athrun asked, skeptical.

-"Strictly speaking, no. Not really - I want to give you this machine. It's that simple. Though, on the surface it would appear as you say." After a short while, Durendal looked up at the Saviour again and continued. "My "Lacus Clyne" made my thoughts about this situation very clear; if at all possible, I wish to avoid a prolonged war - ideally a diplomatic solution would be preferable. However I'm not willing to sit back unarmed and wait quietly to be destroyed."

-"Strength is a necessity." Athrun quoted, his tone uneasy.

-"Precisely so. And for this reason I wish for those who believe as I do to stand firm with me, and that is why I feel that if push comes to shove it would be in our best interest if you had power. I'm confident that come what may you won't make the wrong decision, and if we should end up taking a wrong turn, I'm counting on you to steer us right."

Athrun hesitated, and Durendal continued, smiling. "Of course, I won't ask you to make an immediate decision. If you want to take some time to think about it, that's perfectly fine."

Later that evening, Athrun went to a nearby hotel, intending to go to bed after a quick dinner.  
>"ATHRUN!" a voice he knew well cried, and as he looked up he saw the Lacus doppelgänger running towards him, far more exuberant than Lacus had ever been. She even had a Haro, which was red. Interestingly, Athrun recalled every Haro he had ever given his erstwhile fiancée, and could not recall ever making a red one.<p>

Whoever she was, this girl was not unattractive in her way, but Athrun was somewhat confused nonetheless as she ran and literally threw herself into his arms. "Oh, I'm so thrilled!"  
>-"Uh...who are you?" Athrun stammered.<p>

-"I'm Meer - Meer Campbell!" She said in an undertone, "But when we're in public like this, please call me "Lacus", okay?" she added, and winked, still smiling.

Not long afterward, he was seated across from her in the hotel's restaurant, still not quite sure how he'd ended up there.  
>Now that he saw her up close her hair, while styled identically, was very slightly darker than Lacus's, and there were other differences in her appearance, some obvious and others less so; then of course her style of dress, which was much more suggestive and revealing than anything Lacus would've worn. It made him uncomfortable.<p>

"Hey, did you see my performance today? How was it, was I just like her?" She asked excitedly. Then, more hesitantly, she continued "Or...was I not even close?"

-"No, you were actually very good." He said.

-"Honestly?" she said, looking ecstatic. He nodded.

-"You looked nearly identical - I could barely tell the difference."

-"Yeah, but you're Lacus's fiancé, aren't you? So you would be able to tell. Still, I'm glad." They ate in silence for a while, and then she spoke again "You know the truth is, I've always been a big fan of Ms. Lacus. I used to love singing her songs all the time; people started telling me that my voice sounded like hers, even then. Then one day the Chairman called for me."

-"And that's how you started doing this." Athrun said, still uncomfortable with the idea.

-"Yes," she nodded as she replied, smiling. "Chairman Durendal said he needed my strengths, for the PLANTs' sake. And that's why..." Athrun shook his head.

-"He doesn't need your strengths, he needs Lacus's." he said, thinking of what Durendal had told him. The man had manipulated her, after all. He'd suspected as much.

-"I know that." Meer said, slightly crestfallen, and Athrun realized that his comment had sounded somewhat harsher than he'd intended. "Ms. Lacus's strengths are always going to be needed, by everyone. She's strong, and kind, and she's beautiful. Me...I'm just Meer. Nobody really needs me. But, Ms Lacus isn't here now..." Athrun looked at her, surprised at her words. "So I don't mind if it's just for now. I'm game!" She sounded cheerful again and smiled, but to Athrun it seemed forced. "I'm just glad to be able to help everyone on her behalf. And I'm really glad to've met you, Athrun!"

The evening went on, and Meer left soon after they were finished eating. Athrun returned to his hotel room, and thought about what he'd seen and heard. He wondered what his next step should be, and he decided he'd have to think carefully before making his decision...

**Orb Union**

Cagalli read the report, frowning. "News from the PLANTs...Looks like they're going to be dropping reinforcements to Gibraltar, Carpentaria, and Victoria. Durendal's claiming it's "for self-defense purposes only", but he's just adding fuel to the flames." She remembered Durendal's talk of the necessity of strength, and she gritted her teeth. She turned to the next report. It was from Rondo Mina Sahaku, and the news was good. She smiled, then printed off several copies. That done, she closed her laptop and decided to get some breakfast before heading into the meeting scheduled that day with the Council of Emirs.  
>Predictably the meeting was opened by the Seirans, who were again pushing their treaty with the Atlantic Federation.<p>

"That is absolutely out of the question!" She said forcefully, slamming her hand on the table and looking around. A few smirked, others looked almost condescending - the Seirans' cronies. She ignored them. There were a few others who looked genuinely worried. "Say whatever you want, but I refuse to allow this nation to enter into an Alliance with the Atlantic Federation."

-"I understand your apprehension, Representative Athha, but think of the current situation." Unato Ema Seiran replied. "Besides, this isn't a treaty with just the Atlantic Federation; it is an Alliance of all the nations of Earth. Naturally, provisions to provide disaster relief to affected areas are included in the treaty, which is why we are considering signing it." he replied patronizingly.]

_'At the same time making Orb subservient to the Atlantic Federation'_ Cagalli thought, seething, glowering at Unato.

"Really?" she replied. "I might point out that for all your claims, I have it on good authority that the Eurasian Federation, for instance, did they taking part in this so-called Alliance's military action against the PLANTs. If you can call it that."

Some of the Councilmen looked momentarily confused at the apparent change of subject. A patronizing look on his face, Unato began to speak again.

-"Because you were aboard a ZAFT ship for an extended period of time, it may be difficult for you to comprehend the current situation." He began as he began flipping through a series of photographs of affected disaster areas. "The damage and the casualties suffered by Earth are far greater than words can describe. And then there's this." The next images showed the terrorists' GINNs. "We - that is, all of Earth - now know about this..."

"Spare me, Unato Ema. I was there, remember?" Cagalli interrupted shortly. "I'm perfectly aware of what happened up there - and to a much greater extent than you, obviously." She countered. "The attack was caused by a small handful of terrorists, and the PLANTs - you may not know this, judging from those photographs - sent four warships in addition to the _Minerva_ in an attempt to stop them."

"But can we tell that to the tens of millions who have been affected by this calamity?"

"Why shouldn't we?" Cagalli countered, her voice - and her temper - rising. "While we're at it, why don't we tell them about the Earth Alliance warship that attacked the _Minerva_ and the other ships during their attempts to disable the terrorists and destroy Junius Seven before it could fall, thereby directly contributing to their failure to do so?"

At those words she withdrew from her own pocket a small handful of printouts that had privately been given to her by Yzak shortly before she disembarked. Included were images of the mobile armor and two mobile suits that had attacked the Joule Team, as well as a shot of two Alliance Daggers, flying in formation with the mobile armor. Also included was several shots of Daggers attacking the Joule Team mobile suits, and a view of their ship as it retrieved the mobile suits, including several damaged Daggers, plus the mobile armor. She threw the photographs onto the table, in plain view of everyone.

"Taking into account the distances involved, there aren't many places that ship could've come from." She concluded. In fact, there was only one place it could've come from, and everyone in the room knew it.

Taking advantage of the silence, Cagalli began her counterattack. "You saw what they did as well as I did. A nuclear attack on the PLANTs, in blatant violation of international law. Additionally that ship was equipped with a Mirage Colloid Stealth System - also outlawed technology. So you tell me, why should we join them." The various members of the Council began protesting confusedly, each speaking over the others until Yuna Roma Seiran stood.

-"Would you please stop your childish complaining?" he said condescendingly. "We already know that the Atlantic Federation is an aggressive nation without you having to tell us about it. So now what? Should we turn our backs on this Alliance? Decide against joining the other nations of Earth? Call your friends in the PLANTs, maybe?"

-"No." Cagalli said. _'Keep talking, you smug bastard. You'll see in a minute...'_ she thought, fighting to keep her expression neutral. Yuna looked around at the others in a patronizing sort of way, then continued.

-"Well then are you implying we should isolate ourselves, ignore the cries of those hardest hit by this disaster?"

-"Of course not." Cagalli retorted angrily.

-"Then what do you suggest we do?" Yuna asked, clearly thinking he'd backed her into a corner. _'Gotcha.'_ she thought to herself - the conversation had gone exactly how she'd hoped it would. Well, almost.

-"Funny you should ask that." She said nastily. Then she pressed a button on the console in front of her. "Send them in."

Two aides entered, carrying a stack of documents. One went down each side of the table, handing out a packet to each member of the Council of Emirs. Then they left, as Cagalli produced her own packet from her briefcase.

- "And what is this?" Unato Ema asked as he began reading. Cagalli allowed herself a thin half-smile as the smug look slid off his and Yuna's faces. _'Read'em and weep.' _she thought triumphantly. Then she answered the question.

-"You would have us join forces with the Atlantic Federation, a nation that nearly burned this nation to the ground four years ago." she began. "You would make us subservient to a nation whose stated goal as evidenced by their actions is an unjustifiable genocide against the PLANTs."

-Yuna started to protest, but she silenced him with a glare. "Well, I have a counter-proposal. What you see here is the current result of an ongoing negotiation between the Orb Union and the Eurasian Federation - who is itself a signatory to the World Security Treaty, and uninvolved in the Atlantic Federation's war with the PLANTs. You will note that the terms of this agreement allow Orb full rights as member state and ally of the Eurasian Federation to disaster relief as accorded by the World Security Treaty."

-That name still left a bad taste in her mouth; She would much rather have told every last one of them to burn in Hell - there was still too much potential risk to Orb in this alliance, but it was a safer option. She continued, "You will also note that the treaty makes no provisions nor concessions for military aid, either to or from the Eurasian Federation nor any other of the Alliance member nations, on the part of Orb."

-That is true..." one of the other members of the council said tentatively.

_-"We will not attack another nation. We will not allow another nation to attack us. We will not intervene in the conflicts of other nations."_ Cagalli recited, then turned to Yuna. "Does your agreement to ally with the Atlantic Federation protect the ideals of our nation in such a way?" There was silence. The answer, of course, was no.

She looked around; the consternation was general - she had unexpectedly and brutally yanked the rug out from under them, and they seemed uncertain of what to do. Many looked to Unato, who was hesitant, or Yuna, who looked like she'd punched him.  
>She idly found herself wishing she had.<br>"I thought not." She said smugly. "The finalized document should be ready for your signatures within the week. In the meantime, unless there is other pressing business to attend to, this meeting is adjourned."

At Morgenröte's facilities meanwhile, Arthur had approached Yzak, wanting to discuss the change in their situation.  
>"I know the Alliance declared war against us, Arthur." Yzak said shortly. "That's why I can't authorize an early departure - not until we're done resupplying the ship."<p>

-"My point is sir, that that doesn't matter right now. We have to make all possible speed and get to Carpentaria."

-"I can understand your wanting to hurry, but might I remind you that there is a rather large fucking fleet of Alliance warships currently blockading Carpentaria?" Yzak sneered as he responded. "Suppose we rushed out of here, improperly supplied and repaired. What do you think will happen when the Alliance attacks us as we approach? In any case, Orb is not a part of the Alliance - yet. We'll leave as soon as we're ready soon as we're ready and not a moment sooner."

Two tense days later the repairs were done at last, and the ship was fully resupplied. However, there was still no word from Headquarters, and Yzak was a little tense. He was on the bridge when Bart alerted him to a radio transmission he'd caught.  
>"What've you got?"<p>

-"It's a short-range transmission, but it's on a ZAFT secret frequency; been coming in for some time now. Take a listen."

Yzak grabbed Bart's headset and heard a voice addressing them. "_Minerva_, do you copy? You can't wait any longer. A chip surrounded by black chips will flip and become black itself." The voice was heavily distorted, but Yzak recognized it; he knew only one man who could conceivably have talked that way. What the man was doing in Orb, he neither knew nor cared. Besides, only ZAFT ship captains and team commanders would've known this particular frequency.

-"Cut the crap, Waltfeld." He snapped. "And speak plainly."

-"Well, well. It's LeCreuset's boy." Andrew replied plainly; he recognized that voice well; silver-blonde hair, with a scar on his face. Hot-headed, angry, impulsive. The pilot of the Duel, if he remembered correctly. Ezalia Joule's brat.

-"That's Commander Yzak Joule, Captain of the _Minerva_. Now quit screwing around and if you've got something to say, say it plainly."

-"Well then, if you want it plainly: Before too long, ZAFT will begin a drop operation on Gibraltar, Carpentaria, and Victoria. When that happens, Orb will probably ram through a motion to join the Atlantic Federation's alliance despite Representative Athha's best efforts. You have to leave before that happens, or you're gonna be in all kinds of trouble. Your call if you want to stay and risk it, youngster." And the line went dead.

"Still nothing from Carpentaria?" Yzak asked.

-"No, sir. I don't know if it's because the Earth Forces are on high alert, but there's a lot of interference; even laser communications are no good." Replied Bart.

Yzak thought carefully about their situation. If what Waltfeld said was correct and the PLANTs were about to go on the offensive, they had to get out of Orb fast, especially if Cagalli had, even with the ace-in-the-hole he'd given her, failed.

-"Tomorrow morning, 0800. We take off. I want Shinn, Luna, and Rey on standby for immediate takeoff the moment we leave port; If Orb's about to join the Alliance, you can bet the Atlantic Federation'll have ships waiting for us."

-"Yes sir!" Bart acknowledged. If the shit was really about to hit the fan, they'd be ready.

The following morning, as the ship was beginning its launch preparations, a black limousine pulled up and Cagalli exited, alone. An armed guard met her at the gate and escorted her up to the bridge. On the way up they crossed Shinn, Lunamaria and Rey, who were on their way to the briefing room.  
>The three of them stopped. <em>'Oh no...' <em>Luna thought, looking at Shinn, who was glaring at the Representative.

-"What're you doing here?" He asked her harshly. "The Earth Forces invaded Orb in the last war, and now you're going to join them? Just how irresponsible and selfish can you people be?"

-"It's not like that at all!" Cagalli replied angrily. This seemed to anger Shinn even more, but to Luna's surprise he didn't fly off the handle this time.

-"Yeah, right!" Shinn retorted. "If you've become our enemy...I'll destroy this country. With my own hands." He warned, and he walked past, shouldering her aside as he did so.

-"Sorry about that." Luna replied. "But is it really true? You're going to join the Alliance."

-"It's a little more complicated than that." Cagalli replied vaguely. Luna shrugged and walked past. Rey, who hadn't said a word so far, walked past with a respectful salute. Soon afterwards, she was on the bridge, where Yzak was waiting.

"Well?" He asked. "Why'd you come all the way out here?"

-"I wanted to apologize about you having to rush off so suddenly. And also, to thank you for all your help."

-"Nevermind. Sure, it's disappointing. But it can't be helped." Cagalli nodded.

-"But it could be worse. Thanks to you, I think we have a pretty good shot at avoiding a worse-case scenario." Yzak raised an eyebrow.

-"So you were able to make use of my little parting gift. I take it it was effective." Cagalli nodded gratefully.

-"Between you and the help I had from another good friend, I think Orb should be safe for now. So I wanted to thank you."

-"No problem. And hey, thanks for coming to see us off. Give my regards to the idiot when you see him." Cagalli smiled. She didn't know Yzak Joule well, and from what she could tell he was a real son of a bitch. But she could see why Athrun trusted him. All the same, she had a feeling Athrun would not be returning to Orb just yet...

-"Sure. If you'll do the same if you see him first."

Soon afterwards she stood on the dock as the _Minerva_ set slowly out. It was 7:30 by the time the ship was clear and on its way out of Orb's territorial waters. "Good luck." She said, and turned back towards her car, which took her back to Orb's administrative headquarters. She had another long day ahead of her.


	6. Phase 06: Blood in the Water

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **Chapter 6 parallels Phase 12 of the series, and is nearly identical in terms of the sequence of events covered.

This chapter is unchanged from its previous version - mostly.

* * *

><p><strong>PHASE 06: Blood in the Water<strong>

Hundreds of miles above the surface of the planet, a large number of ZAFT drop ships were placed at strategic locations in Earth orbit, each one escorted by Nazca-class destroyers and awaiting the signal to begin descent.  
>Their objective was simple enough: To reinforce the troops already in place at ZAFT's main bases on Earth. The initial proposal for the operation, code-name "Spear of Twilight", had been put forward by Ezalia Joule of the National Defense Committee and accepted unanimously by the Supreme Council, with the caveat, at Chairman Durendal's insistence, that the reinforcements were to be used "for self-defense purposes only" - in other words to beat back the fleets currently blockading the bases. They were forbidden from launching any retaliatory attacks against Earth Alliance assets at Suez or other nearby Alliance bases, which had served as the staging point for the deployed enemy fleets.<p>

At last, it was time to begin.

"Operation Spear of Twilight will commence in T-60 seconds." Came the announcement on all of the orbiting ships. "No enemy force detected within radius of 600. Begin countdown. All forces prepare for launch. Minus five...four...three...two...Commence descent!"  
>As the order went out, each ship dropped the reentry capsules attached to its underside. There were more than two dozen on each ship, each pod carrying three mobile suits, totaling nearly a hundred additional MS launching from each ship.<br>On Earth, the Alliance fleets detected the pods as they began entering the atmosphere and scrambled their forces to counterattack. At the same time, each base deployed their own aerial forces and engaged the Alliance mobile suits. The battle had begun.

In Orb, the _Minerva_ left port and began sailing out of Orb's territorial waters. Fully supplied and repaired, its pilots were in the ready room, suited up and on five-minute alert. Meanwhile, Yuna Roma Seiran was at Orb's military HQ, watching the ship leave.  
>"I hear it's a fast ship. It should be out of our territorial waters in short order. Have we contacted our friends yet?"<p>

-"Yes sir, we have."

-"Are we done with our preparations as well?"

-"Yes sir."

-"Good. Then let's just sit back and watch the show..." Yuna said, anticipating the coming events with some eagerness.

"We have now left Orb territorial waters." Arthur reported as the ship steamed past the twelve-mile limit of Orb's territory.

-"I wonder how the drop operation's going." Yzak commented. "Any word from Carpentaria?"

-"No sir." Abby replied. "I've been trying, but there's still no response."

-"Picking up numerous heat sources ahead, distance 20." Bart suddenly reported. "Looks like an Earth Alliance fleet; four Spengler-class carriers, eight Arkansas-class, and ten Fraser-class. They're spreading out to port and starboard."

-"Four carriers, that's four mobile suits in the hold, three on the deck for each; twenty-eight mobile suits. The Arkansas-class can hold a single helo or mobile suit on the stern deck, so that's another eight; thirty-six mobile suits." Yzak commented, gritting his teeth.

-"That's insane! We only have the Impulse and the three ZAKUs!"

-"That's not the problem: Of our mobile suits, only two are capable of aerial combat: The Impulse and Rey's Tempest ZAKU. So that's nearly twenty-to-one odds." Yzak added, his tone of voice betraying his mounting temper. He thought about it for a moment. "Damn it."

-"What's going on here?" Malik commented. "It's like these ships were out here just waiting for us; I thought the Earth Forces in the area were all surrounding Carpentaria."

-"Sir! The Orb Fleet is massing at their border behind us. Turrets rotating...they're targeting us!" Bart added.  
>Yzak swore loudly; apparently, it looked like Athha hadn't been entirely successful after all.<p>

-"Upgrade to Condition Red! Arthur, take command here. I'm going out too!"

-"Y..Yes, sir! Going to Condition Red - lower the bridge!" Arthur ordered as he took his place, "All units prepare for anti-ship, anti-MS combat!"  
>Yzak left, and the entire bridge structure began sliding downwards into the heavily armored combat bridge located just below, where it was protected by the ship's heavy armor, including a thick armored panel that slid shut overhead. The bank of monitors flickered to life.<br>As he headed down to the hangar to get suited up and ready, Yzak was fuming. _'They haven't even signed that damn treaty yet, and now Orb is offering us to the Alliance on a silver platter. Bastards. That fat pig Seiran is bloody well behind this, I just know it!'_

-"Upgrading to Condition Red! Pilots proceed to your units and stand by!" Came the announcement over the ship's PA. Rey was up first, followed by Shinn and Luna. They were boarding their machines when Shinn spotted Yzak, easily recognizable by his white flight suit, enter the hangar and board his ZAKU.

-"The Captain's launching too?" Shinn muttered. "How come?"  
>Moments later as Yzak strapped himself in, he opened up a radio line and had Arthur relay his message to the ship via the PA.<p>

"Attention all hands, this is your Captain. The enemy we are now facing consists of four Atlantic Federation Carrier Strike Groups. Additionally, Orb has deployed a fleet at their border, sealing it off. We now have no choice but to break through the fleet ahead of us; I expect it's going to be the most severe battle we've yet faced - but we have to get through, and we will. I'm counting on all of you to give it everything you've got!"

In the Impulse's cockpit, Shinn was fuming.  
>-"FOUR carriers? And the Orb fleet too? Damn it!"<p>

The Impulse and Rey's ZAKU were the first out the catapults. Lunamaria followed, as did Yzak. His ZAKU's Tempest Wizard, which would have allowed him atmospheric flight capability, had been damaged during the battle against the Chaos, and they had lacked the time or necessary parts to repair it. He would have to settle with a Blaze Wizard.  
>"Shinn and Rey; don't stray too far from the ship!" Yzak ordered. "Luna, you and I will fire on attacking airborne units from the deck."<p>

-"Roger that!" Came the simultaneous reply from the other three pilots.

The instant the Impulse was out of the catapult, Shinn shot forward into a formation of enemy Dagger-Ls, which scattered and fired. He took out two of them with the first shots from his beam rifle. Dodging an attack from the leader's Windam he counterattacked, blasting off its shield arm first, then taking it in the torso.

Rey hung back a little farther, alternating between his beam rifle and the high-speed beam gatling guns on his Tempest Wizard to attack enemy MS that approached; He took two of them out with the latter; the lead unit dodged the attack, however, forcing him to take it out with the rifle.

On the bridge, Arthur was making preparations to attack the enemy ships along the port bow in an attempt to break through.  
>"Tristans and Isoldes, target the ships on the port side; load launchers one through six with Parsifals; FIRE!"<p>

The ship fired a massive barrage of missiles followed up with a volley from its numerous cannons, taking out two Arkansas-class ships and crippling a third. However, they had to contend with overwhelming numbers of mobile suits, and even with Shinn and Rey whittling away their numbers, some slipped past  
>"Incoming mobile suits at three o'clock, sir: three of them!" Bart reported.<p>

-"Evade 10 to port!" Arthur ordered, and Malik turned the ship slightly. Spotting the targets, Lunamaria took aim and fired, nailing one of them. The other two dodged and launched their missiles at the ship before Yzak let off a shot from his own rifle, obliterating one of the survivors. Detecting the incoming projectiles, the 40mm CIWS dotting the ship's hull roared to life, easily destroying the small but deadly missiles. At such close range, the enemy Dagger was also detected by the CIWS and cut to shreds as one of the numerous turrets targeted his mobile suit.  
>However, missiles were also being fired from other mobile suits, and some of them slipped past the CIWS's defense, impacting the hull and rocking the ship.<br>A second formation closed in to attack and Lunamaria targeted them with the Gunner ZAKU's missile launcher, firing a volley of projectiles that blew them to pieces.

"This isn't over!" Shinn exclaimed as he docked the beam rifle and drew one of the Impulse's two beam sabers. Targeting one of the formations attacking the _Minerva_, he dodged a shot from one of the Daggers; closing fast, he slipped inside the enemy pilot's guard and hacked open its torso, killing the pilot. As the leader's Windam and the other Daggers moved to counter, he turned towards them.

"We're not about to be defeated here!" he charged into the formation. One shot grazed the leg, doing minor damage. As he engaged the leader, the others scattered.  
>And Rey was waiting, picking off both as the enemy Windam blocked Shinn's beam saber with its own. Shifting his position, Shinn delivered a hard kick with the Impulse's leg that impacted the enemy MS's front waist, throwing it off-balance just long enough for him to slip his own blade into its cockpit hatch.<p>

Then there were the enemy ships, which fired a massive barrage at the _Minerva_.  
>"Incoming missiles from three o'clock and twelve o'clock, sir! Lots of them!"<p>

-"Turn 20 to starboard; intercept with CIWS: target the attacking ships with Isolde, Tristans 2 and 3!"  
>The <em>Minerva<em> turned to starboard, allowing the maximum number of CIWS turrets to lay down a hail of suppressive fire that stopped the vast majority of the incoming missiles. Two of its three dual beam cannons, along with the heavy triple-barreled cannon on its upper bow, fired at the enemy ships, taking out two more.

Meanwhile Shinn and Rey continued to engage enemy mobile suits; Rey was using his beam rifle and beam gatling guns to take them out from long range, while Shinn, faster and more agile, engaged them in close-quarters. He hacked in two another Dagger L, and when one tried to attack from behind he blocked the attack with the Impulse's shield. Slamming the shield into the enemy machine, he then swiped diagonally at its torso, bisecting it.  
>But more and more mobile suits were launching from the carriers. One of them narrowly missed the Impulse's head. Shinn turned and moved in, blocking its next shot with the shield and counterattacking with the rifle, slicing off the front quarter of the Dagger's own beam carbine - rendering the weapon useless. The enemy unit drew a small knife-type weapon, which it threw at the Impulse. The weapon detonated when it hit the Impulse, rocking the machine but causing no damage.<br>However, Shinn was thrown off-balance for a second, and had to narrowly dodge the slash from its beam saber. Shifting his grip, he countered with a diagonal strike that severed the Dagger's waist from its upper body, then stabbed the blade upwards into its back, destroying it.  
>He checked his display; he was down to roughly 50% power.<br>"Damn; is that all I've got left?..Gotta be more careful."

Rey meanwhile was less fortunate; one lucky shot had hit his shoulder, taking with it the railgun and only narrowly missing the Tempest Wizard's wing. As he fired the beam gatling guns at one enemy unit, it fired a shot that took out his beam rifle, leaving him only with the Gatlings and with only his left arm functioning. When one of the enemy machines closed into melee range, he retreated long enough to draw the "Falx" beam axe from his shoulder-shield. Taking advantage of the weapon's longer range, he sliced off the enemy Dagger's arm, then reversed his swing and hacked it in two.  
>He then continued to fire from long range, dodging most of the attacks that came his way, blocking the rest; the Daggers were more nimble than his ZAKU but less heavily-armed; only the command-type Windams, with their big beam rifles, were really difficult; those machines were fast and agile, nearly on par with the Impulse.<p>

Lunamaria and Yzak were likewise firing at everything that came within range, but it seemed like there was no end to them.|  
>-"Look how many there are - this is ridiculous!" Lunamaria exclaimed as yet another formation of mobile suits closed in. She targeted them and fired a barrage of missiles, obliterating most of them. She eliminated those that were able to dodge or shoot down the incoming missiles with the "Orthos" beam cannon.<br>-"Keep the chatter down, we don't have time for it." Yzak commented dryly as he lined up another shot with the rifle and fired, taking out another Dagger before it could fire at the ship. As an additional formation came in, he locked on and fired the Blaze Wizard's missile launchers, swarming them with missiles and taking out the lot of them. "Just shoot these bastards."

Then, he saw the alert; he was beginning to run low on power, and his rifle's energy drum was expended. Ejecting it, he retrieved one of the two spares mounted on the underside of the shield and snapped it into place.  
>"Damn it. The longer this drags on, the worse our chances get." He muttered. "We have to break through, and fast."<p>

Meanwhile in Orb, Cagalli was hard at work putting the finishing touches on the next - and she hoped, final - draft of the agreement with the Eurasian Federation, which she would send to Mina to relay to President Baum's Cabinet. If all went well, she hoped to have this entire situation resolved within a few days. Once it was, Orb would be safe.  
>Once this was done, she stopped for a few moments to think.<br>Earlier in the morning Yuna had come by and congratulated her on ensuring Orb's continued safety. He hadn't meant a word of it, she could tell. But he was - or more to the point, Unato Ema, his father was highly influential in the Council, and a lot of the others followed the Seirans' lead.  
>The problem lay in that the Seirans were pushing for a political marriage, arguing that uniting the two strongest of Orb's noble families would strengthen the morale of the nation. And Yuna was pushing for it harder than ever.<br>"But do I really want to marry him? Would that really be best for Orb?" She wasn't sure what the right thing to do would be. She glanced at the ring on her finger. It was a lovely jewel; not very big, but elegant; just the sort of thing Athrun would pick out for her.

It suddenly occurred to her that she hadn't seen Yuna in a while. She picked up the phone and dialed the Seiran residence.  
>"Yuna Roma please; is he there?...Military HQ? What would he be doing there?..." she said. "No, it's all right; nevermind." She answered the receptionist who'd picked up the phone when he asked what she had said. "Thank you." She hung up.<p>

After a moment, she decided to see exactly what Yuna was doing at Orb's military command center.

Outside Orb's waters, the battle was raging. The fleet had lost a third of its mobile suits and four escort ships so far, but they were hammering at the _Minerva_ from long range, mostly with missile barrage after missile barrage, but also with their cannons; It was only a matter of time before the ship sank before the onslaught; their advantage was overwhelming.  
>At least, that was the opinion of the fleet's commander, who sat on the bridge of the only carrier to have remained in the back of the enemy formation, and had so far deployed only a handful of mobile suits from its deck. Unusually, the lateral launch doors on this particular carrier were absent; It had been modified with a single large launch hatch on its central upper deck, and carried only four mobile suits on its stern decks.<br>This was the _Tarawa_, the fleet flagship for this particular assault force. On its bridge, the CO was watching the battle unfold.

"I see O' Donnell's report about that ship's fighting strength was not exaggerated. They are putting up a pretty good fight."  
>From the back, he saw the other carriers launch another massive volley of missiles.<br>The enemy ship's CIWS took out a sizable chunk of them, but a number of projectiles slipped through, causing significant damage to the hull, though nothing crippling yet.

As the latest volley of missiles came screaming in towards the _Minerva_ one of them impacted the starboard deck, destroying the Tristan. Worse still, Yzak's ZAKU was caught in the explosion and severely damaged.  
>"Damn it!" Yzak swore. He flipped a switch, and the crippled ZAKU's torso and legs were literally ejected as the cockpit block, encased in a small, mobile escape pod, shot forward. The ZAKU lacked the Impulse's complex modular construction, but the basic concept of the Core Splendor had been stripped down to create this simplified version, designed purely to function as an escape pod. Landing the little craft on the stern deck, he entered the ship, and made his way back up to the bridge without bothering to change out of his flight suit.<p>

"Captain?" Arthur asked as he saw him arrive.

-"I'm taking the bridge. We've lost one MS. How bad is it up here?"

-"Significant damage to the hull, but nothing major yet; We've lost one of the Tristans, and we have damage to main thrusters two and three from enemy missile strikes. The Impulse and Tempest ZAKU are down to 40% and 55% power respectively, and the Tempest ZAKU is damaged. The Gunner ZAKU's at 62% power."

Yzak growled; this was bad, and they'd only whittled down about a third of the enemy force; if it kept up, they were in trouble. Another volley of missiles screamed in towards the _Minerva, _most of which were intercepted by the ship's CIWS. But it still wasn't enough, and several projectiles impacted the ship's hull.

"Counter attack. Load Wolfram, all tubes. Load launchers 1 through 4 with Dispar air-intercept missiles; Parsifals in 9 and 10; target the enemy fleet with the remaining Tristans and Isolde 1." Yzak ordered. "Tristan 1 and 2, Isolde, FIRE!"

The cannons fired, taking out one of the enemy's Arkansas-class ships. The remaining Alliance ships fired yet another volley of missiles.

"Evade 20 to port, Set Dispars to intercept; Launchers 1 through 4, FIRE!" Yzak barked as they detected the incoming attack.

The _Minerva _launched a first, then a second, then a third volley of missiles, the smaller and faster projectiles intercepting the larger anti-ship missiles before they could strike the ship. Of the projectiles that remained, the CIWS whittled down most of the rest; several missed as the ship moved, the rest impacted its hull, buckling and damaging it; One of them hit the bow-mounted Isolde, taking out the cannon entirely.

"Launchers 9 and 10, tubes 1 through 4, launch Parsifals." Yzak ordered. Eight missiles streaked towards the nearest carrier. Its own anti-missile defenses took down all but two, which impacted its hull at deck level, ripping a gaping hole in its side above the waterline.

-"Wolfram, all tubes loaded." Arthur reported.

-"FIRE!" From four horizontal launch tubes almost at the very tip of the _Minerva_'s sharp bow, a series of Wolfram M25 wire-guided torpedoes launched. These were big, 56cm weapons, with a 300kg high-explosive warhead capable of splitting apart the keel of most capital ships.

Arthur kept the weapons under tight guidance, running passive. Then as they closed in he switched all four to active homing, and weapons one and two reported lock.

-"Release one and two." Yzak ordered, and Arthur cut the wires and released the first two torpedoes.

The big underwater missiles struck the keel of the damaged carrier roughly a hundred meters apart, shattering it and ripping its hull open. The stricken carrier began to sink fast as the third, then the fourth torpedoes reported active lock.

-"Release 3 and 4." Yzak ordered. The last two torpedoes had acquired separate targets: An Arkansan-class cruiser and a Frasier-class destroyer, sailing close to the sinking carrier.

The explosion literally ripped the smaller ship in two, while the Arkansas was hit just at the bow, which was blasted open. Both ships soon joined the carrier on the bottom.

Onboard the _Tarawa_, the fleet commander turned to his XO.  
>"Where is the Zamza-Zah?" He asked. When the XO looked questioningly at him, he continued smugly. "We won't get an effective demonstration of its power if the prey is too weakened."<p>

-"Yes, sir. We'll launch it as soon as it's ready." The other replied.

-"I may be a little biased, but I believe mobile armors like that one will soon be the backbone of our forces." The captain began to comment. "They're a lot better than those flimsy imitation ZAFT machines we have now."

In the hold of the ship, a crew of three was boarding the YMAF-X6BD Zamza-Zah, a massive prototype mobile armor developed by Adukav Mechano-Industries for the Atlantic Federation. Fast, heavily armed and armored, it was the largest and most powerful mobile armor ever produced thus far, and the _Tarawa_had been specially modified to serve as its mothership. This would be its first actual combat sortie, and the entire crew looked forward to seeing it destroy this pestilential ZAFT ship.

"Zulu 01, lift up. Deck crew fall back to the bunkers after guidance is confirmed. Course is clear; Ready for launch!"  
>The deck crew ran for cover as the Zamza-Zah's thrusters roared to life, and the massive mobile armor took off.<p>

"Incoming unknown!" Bart suddenly reported on the _Minerva_'s bridge. "Whatever it is, it's big!"

-"Abby, give me eyes on that thing." Yzak snapped.

-"Getting a visual now, sir." She replied. A moment later, the new arrival appeared on the main display screen.

-"What the hell is that?...it's huge!" Arthur exclaimed.

-"A mobile armor...if that monster gets ahold of us, we're finished. Arthur, activate the Tannhaüser! We'll obliterate that thing and the ships along the port bow."

-"Sir! Activating Tannhaüser. Transferring firing axis control - target the enemy mobile armor."

A diamond-shaped hatch along the _Minerva_'s sleek bow slowly opened as a large cannon barrel slid out from inside the ship. The barrel began glowing bright white as energy gathered at its mouth.

-"FIRE!" Yzak ordered.

The massive energy gathered was released in an enormous blue-white beam that shot towards the enemy mobile armor, which had rotated forward, turning its triangular back towards the _Minerva_. A thin field of energy shimmered into existence along its back an instant before the enormous positron beam impacted. The barrier stopped the beam, but the massive amount of energy forced the mobile armor back several hundred meters. Two ships were annihilated by the beam as it passed.

But when the smoke cleared, the Zamza-Zah was still intact; its positron reflector, a prototype new technology loosely inspired by the monophase lightwave-barrier developed years earlier by the Eurasian Federation, had worked.

"It deflected it?" Shinn said, shocked. "Even the Tannhaüser..." The Tannhaüser, a positron beam cannon similar to the Lohengrin developed by the Atlantic Federation, was the most powerful weapon in the _Minerva_'s considerable arsenal. And against this monstrous mobile armor, it had proven ineffective.

On the _Minerva_'s bridge, the shock was total, and for a couple of seconds nobody spoke. Then Yzak slammed his fist into his seat's armrest.  
>"Damn it! Take us 20 to port, engines to maximum! Recall Shinn and Rey - target the port-side carrier with the Tristans. Load Dispars in launchers 1 through 4, Neidharts in 5 and 6 Parsifals in 8 through 10."<p>

-"But Captain, that mobile armor..." Arthur began to speak, but Yzak cut him off.

-"You have any bright ideas, genius?" he retorted angrily, then continued. "Let's see if we can't shake him off temporarily at least. Launchers 5 and 6, target the enemy mobile armor and fire."

-"Right. Launcher 5, Launcher 6; Neidharts, FIRE!" A volley of missiles streaked towards the Zamza-Zah, which began to move, firing a set of 75mm CIWS guns mounted on its arms, shooting down the missiles. Not altogether surprised, Yzak turned to the helmsman. "Do your best to avoid it, Malik."

Rey immediately returned, taking up a position above the _Minerva_'s starboard deck. Meanwhile the Zamza-Zah had righted itself and accelerated towards the _Minerva_, its two front arms straightened as it targeted the ship.

"Oh no you don't, you bastard." Shinn exclaimed as he slammed the throttles to their stops. The Impulse shot straight ahead of the enemy mobile armor, which was forced to break off its attack to avoid having both arms sliced off by the Impulse's beam saber.

"The hell's with this thing's mobility?" Shinn raged as he readjusted his position.  
>The mobile armor extended two claws built into its front arms, which began to oscillate at high speed, glowing red. The mobile armor charged forward, aiming to catch the Impulse around the torso. Shinn dodged the attack, then had to block a volley from an array of cannons mounted laterally along the mobile armor's main body. He docked the beam saber and retrieved his beam rifle from its mounting point on the Impulse's rear waist.<p>

"We'll crack that puny body of yours like a nut!" The Zamza-Zah's pilot yelled as he came around for a second attack. Shinn this time shot upwards above it, firing the beam rifle twice as he did so. The positron reflector activated again, blocking his shots.

But he'd noticed something this time.  
>"Got you, you bastard." He said in an undertone, smirking.<p>

Before Shinn could make his next move the Zamza-Zah fired two multiphase beam cannons, mounted in its rear legs, as well as the upper-mounted cannons. Shinn blocked one shot as he slipped laterally out of the line of fire.  
>The Zamza-Zah came around again, firing its cannons, then swung at him with its claws. Shinn dodged high, then slammed the throttles sideways. Slipping to the Zamza-Zah's left side, he fired at the thin triangular endpiece at the back of its body, shearing it off.<p>

"Sir! Reflector field generator 2's been destroyed; the positron reflector can no longer be activated!" One of the Zamza-Zah's crew, who was responsible for operating the deflector field, reported.

-"BASTARD!" The pilot screamed as he fired at the enemy Gundam, which dodged again.

Shinn took aim at the mobile armor's main body and fired the beam rifle. The mobile armor adjusted its thrusters and dodged the attack, which confirmed Shinn's guess: That shield was out of action.  
>Meanwhile, the Alliance fleet's remaining mobile suit forces had renewed their attack on the <em>Minerva<em>, as had their ships. The _Minerva _fired a barrage of Dispar air-intercept missiles as another formation of mobile suits closed in, and Rey and Luna were countering as well. A second wave launched immediately to counter an incoming missile barrage from the ships, supplementing the wall of 40mm fire from the ship's CIWS.

"Launchers 8 through 10, launch Parsifals." Yzak ordered. "Fire Wolfram 1 and 2." A hail of anti-ship missiles rained on the enemy ships as two more went to the bottom, ravaged by hits from missiles that slipped past their defenses as well as crippled by the two big torpedoes. Shifting its course slightly, the _Minerva_ began to turn back towards Orb.

**Orb Union Military Central Command Building.**

"Wow, that is one incredible machine." commented one of the soldiers in the room. "It even stopped their positron cannon."

-"It's putting up a pretty good fight though." commented another.

-Yuna was glancing smugly at the screen as the door slid open, and Cagalli walked in.

-"What's going on here?"

-"Ah, Cagalli." Cagalli ignored him as she walked in, looking at the screens that showed the ongoing battle.

-"The _Minerva_. It's under attack...the Earth Forces?" She asked.

-"That's right - just outside Orb's territory." Yuna replied. "But there's no need to worry: I've sent our own fleet out there to guard our borders."

-"You're not letting the _Minerva_ back into our territory. But they have nowhere to run." Cagalli exclaimed.

-"Those are the rules of Orb. Are they not?" Yuna replied, insufferably smug.

At one of the consoles monitoring the position of the ships outside Orb, the soldier watching the screen suddenly reported that the _Minerva_ was drawing closer to Orb territory. "Alert them and fire warning shots. If they refuse to stop, I authorize our forces to attack!"

-"YUNA!" Cagalli yelled, her temper rising.

-"This nation isn't your plaything!" Yuna retorted. "Would you stop making decisions based on how you feel?"

-Every eye in the room turned towards Cagalli, not a few of them a condescending expression on their face. Those expressions turned to blank shock when Cagalli suddenly delivered a vicious punch to Yuna's solar plexus, knocking the wind out of him and dropping him to his knees.

-"Based on how _I feel_? You sanctimonious prick - you don't have the first idea how I feel!" She yelled, then turned to face the soldiers in the room. "Belay that order! If even one ship attacks the _Minerva_ I'll have its commander court-martialed."

She turned to Yuna, who was struggling to get to his feet. "The PLANTs are neither an enemy of the Eurasian Federation nor of Orb. Bearing this in mind I will not allow the Orb fleets to attack a vessel belonging to that nation. Now get out of here."

Yuna left, still grunting in pain and breathing heavily. In the meantime, Cagalli turned to the screens again, and saw that the situation had changed. While Cagalli arrived at Orb's military headquarters, Orb's Second Home Defense Fleet, deployed along the border, was preparing to obey the orders it had received, however reluctantly.

"They want us to side with the army that invaded us, and fire on a ship that fought heroically to save Earth..." said the fleet commander, a grizzled officer of forty named Fumihiko Todaka. "Personally I believe the appropriate word here is "ungrateful" - but that word probably doesn't exist in the world of politics."

Privately, he thought he would rather not ever have to face a ship like that in combat; A veteran of the disastrous battle of Orb during the previous war, Colonel Todaka had seen the combat capabilities of the _Archangel_ firsthand; He thought the _Minerva_ was easily the equal of that legendary vessel. He also reflected that he would not want to run afoul of the pilot of their Gundam - very similar to the Strike, he thought it was; but that pilot fought with skill and a vicious determination; Even against that monstrosity of a mobile armor, he was relentless.

With a resigned shrug, Todaka turned to his crew. "Ok, we'll warn them. Aim the main guns at the water just ahead of the _Minerva_. But for God's sake don't hit the ship."  
>- "Yes sir." came the answer from the gunnery crew.<p>

-"Sir," his XO protested, "those aren't our orders."

-"So what?" Todaka replied evenly. "I'm not a politician." The XO prepared to issue a warning to the approaching vessel.

-"Attention, ZAFT warship _Minerva_. Your present course is taking you into the territory of the Orb Union. Our nation will not permit your ship to enter our waters - turn back at once!"

The broadcast warning shocked the crew of the _Minerva_, including Shinn.

"If we turn back now, we're finished for certain...Stay on course! We'll run as far as we can go!" Yzak ordered.  
>As the ship closed in, the Orb fleet opened fire, their shots striking the water around and immediately ahead of the ship.<p>

"They're really...attacking us." Shinn said, almost too stunned to believe it. But the precious few seconds of inattention allowed the Zamza-Zah to finally catch the Impulse by the leg. "Oh, SHIT!" he swore as the massive mobile armor began to drop at high speed, dragging the Impulse along.

Its hyper-oscillating claw could not cut through the Impulse's VPS armor on its own, but the constant pressure on the system drained the last of the machine's battery, and the VPS deactivated. As the Zamza-Zah threw the Impulse towards the water, the claw ripped its leg off.

Shinn was falling, floored in place by the pressure, the blood rushing through his feet; he was on the edge of blacking out, knowing he was seconds away from a fatal impact with the ocean's surface below.  
><em>'Is this is? Is this really how it's going to end?...'<em> Images flashed before his eyes - memories. His mother. His father. Mayu. Rey, and Luna.  
><em>'NO. I can't...I WON'T LET IT END LIKE THIS!"<em>

Almost instinctively, before he even realized he'd done it, he slammed the throttles to their stops. The Impulse rocked to a stop a scant few feet from the surface, the sudden stop throwing Shinn in his harness.  
>Something was happening to him; his mind was miraculously clear, clearer than he'd ever felt; Orb, the Alliance, all of that didn't matter at the moment. The only thing that mattered was that no matter what, he would survive; and he would defeat any enemy who threatened his survival, that of Luna, and Rey, and all the others.<p>

The mobile armor aimed its four arms down at the Impulse and fired the multiphase beam cannons each held. But its motions seemed sluggish, as if it was slower than it'd been; Or perhaps, Shinn was better aware of its motions somehow. He shifted the Impulse's position ever so slightly, and the four beam missed, throwing up a cloud of steam that hid him from view as they hit the surface.  
>He checked his instruments; no power, but still plenty of propellant. Good. He took flight, heading towards the ship.<p>

"_Minerva_. Prepare to use the deuterion beam system; and get a Leg Flyer and Sword Silhouette ready."  
>Abby glanced at Yzak, who nodded.<p>

-"Right. Deuterion chamber, stand by. Tracking system has a fix on the Impulse."

-"Rey! Cover me!" Shinn transmitted to his teammate as he approached; Behind, the Zamza-Zah was closing in. Rey moved forward, firing his beam gatlings at the mobile armor, which was forced to evade his attack. It only bought Shinn a few seconds, but those seconds were enough.

-"Deuterion Beam, activated!" Abby announced as a pencil-thin green beam of energy shot from one of two projections on the _Minerva_'s conning tower towards the rectangular centerpiece on the Impulse's head. From that receiver, energy was transmitted through power conduits to the machine's battery; in mere moments, its capacity was restored to 100%, and the VPS reactivated. The beam faded as Shinn shot towards the mobile armor.

Watching from Orb's military headquarters, Cagalli couldn't believe what she was seeing; the Impulse's battery had apparently been depleted, as its armor had deactivated. But now it had recharged in midair, without returning to the _Minerva_ or connecting to any kind of visible power conduit other than that minute green beam; and it had recharged in seconds.

"Recall the Second Home Defense Fleet; tell them to return at once!" she ordered.

Meanwhile, the Impulse was reengaging the Zamza-Zah. Charging towards it, he drew his beam saber.  
>The mobile armor fired its cannons again, but Shinn knew exactly what to do; he brought his shield to bear directly in front of him at a slight angle, almost without even thinking about it. He held it for a few moments as it blocked the shot, then increased the angle at the same time as he shifted the Impulse's thrusters, shooting upwards over the beam, then over the mobile armor.<p>

He was too close and too fast; before the mobile armor could evade, the Impulse landed kneeling on its back, and its saber stabbed the mobile armor in the back, driving in to the hilt. Then Shinn shifted the Impulse's grip slightly, and the blade swept forward across the cockpit block, incinerating the pilot. The Impulse leaped off as the crippled mobile armor fell to the ocean, where it exploded.

"Send out the Silhouettes!" Shinn barked over the radio as he ejected the Impulse's damaged Leg Flyer.  
>Not long afterwards, a new Leg Flyer launched from the <em>Minerva<em>'s miraculously still-intact central catapult, and Shinn docked with it before ejecting the Force Silhouette, which returned to the ship.

Docking with the new equipment caused the Impulse's color to change from blue to red as its computer automatically reoptimized the VPS power settings. Drawing from its back the two "Excalibur" anti-ship beam swords, he docked their hilts together as the Impulse fell towards the remaining Alliance ships.  
>They fired missiles at him, but he either moved around them using the Impulse's thrusters or shot them down using its torso-mounted 20mm CIWS.<p>

He landed on the deck of the first ship - a cruiser - and hacked open the dual beam cannon on its bow before driving one of his heavy blades across its bridge. The cannon's explosion caused massive damage to the ship's bow, and it slowly began to sink.

His next target was one of the destroyers; this time, he drove the Excalibur deep into its missile launchers, slashing diagonally across the rectangular array, then leaping off as the destroyed missiles detonated, literally ripping the ship to pieces from the inside out, as Shinn turned towards his next target.

Attempting to avoid this demonic mobile suit that was decimating their fleet, one of the cruisers made a sudden course change...and slammed into the _Tarawa_, its sharply-angled bow tearing open the carrier's hull at the waterline even as it was itself crushed, buckling under the impact. Leaping off the deck of the sinking ship, Shinn attacked the two damaged vessels.

One team of mobile suits attempted to attack Shinn as he landed on the cruiser's deck, and he leaped off, storing the swords temporarily; the enemy machines' shots hit the ship as he detached from his backpack a pair of beam boomerangs and threw them.  
>One machine was gutted by one of the weapons. Another dodged it, but caught the other from behind as it curved back towards its thrower, carving out the side of the machine and killing its pilot.<br>Shinn caught and stored the two weapons, then drew and fired his beam rifle at the third as he landed back on the cruiser's helipad - which could, and these days usually did, hold a single mobile suit.  
>As he landed, a single CIWS turret fired at him. He hacked it off when he swung the Excalibur, the blade cutting deep into the superstructure. The second sword he impaled through the helipad and across its entire length, shearing off an entire corner of the hull.<br>Leaping off, he landed on the carrier and again drove his weapons into the VLS launchers, hacking apart the projectiles still stored within. Ignoring the stream of bullets from the ship's nearest CIWS turret, which were pinging harmlessly off the Impulse's armor, he then turned to the conning tower and, with a scream of rage, sliced it open.  
>Shinn next shifted his attention towards the other ships of the fleet, and saw that they were in full retreat.<p>

The battle was over.

"Shinn..." Lunamaria muttered, unbelieving. She'd always known Shinn was a good pilot, ever since their days at the Academy in the PLANTs. But she'd never seen such ruthless efficiency. She couldn't believe it. Neither could Yzak or the _Minerva_'s crew.

Looking back from his own ship, Colonel Todaka was equally shocked at this incredible display, not just for the skill it showed but the sheer brutality of the assault.  
>From Orb's military HQ, Cagalli stared, dumbfounded and terrified. Never, ever had she seen anything like this.<br>With a shudder, she remembered Shinn's last words to her, before the ship left port.

_"If you become our enemy, I'll destroy this country with my own hands."_

After thinking about it at the time, she'd dismissed it as Shinn's anger getting the better of him, an idle threat. But after what she'd just seen, she was starting to think that he very well might be able to do it...


	7. Phase 07: Flight to Tomorrow

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **Chapter 7 roughly parallels the final scene of Phase 12 and Phases 13-14 of the series. However, there are a couple of fairly significant differences in terms of the events covered.

One note needs to me made concerning Athrun, which is that unlike in the series, I have Athrun reenlist normally just like Dearka had to. The difference is that Athrun is made squadron leader, which is an enlisted position one rank above ordinary greens, and I have created a distinct uniform for that post.

* * *

><p><strong>PHASE 07: Flight to Tomorrow<strong>

The Alliance fleet having retreated, the badly-damaged _Minerva_ continued on its course, making for ZAFT's main base on Earth at Carpentaria. Emergency repairs were being made to the hull where necessary, and the two ZAKUs had both been recovered. Other than the damage to the ship, they had lost one mobile suit, and quite a few crew members had been injured.  
>On the bridge, Yzak glanced at Arthur.<p>

"A good thing we made complete repairs before setting out, or that fleet would have sunk us for sure." He said dryly. The XO accepted the rebuke without comment.

-"The Impulse has landed, sir." Abby reported.

-"Be nice if they let us off without trying to pick a fight again, but we can't count on it." Yzak commented. "Let the pilots get some rest, for now. And Arthur, get on those damage reports ASAP."

Yzak leaned back in his chair for a moment, contemplating what they'd seen. "I don't know what the hell happened out there, but if not for that kid we'd be finished." He said grudgingly. The truth was, he was impressed. But he would never openly admit it.

-"I know!" Arthur replied enthusiastically. "That was four ships, one of them a carrier, in under three minutes! Plus that mobile armor...Amazing! He'll get a medal for this, for certain."

-"I always wondered why Durendal assigned the Impulse to that kid and not Rey..." Yzak mused.

It was odd - Though they'd been in the same class at the Academy Shinn was a little younger than Rey, and far from an ideal soldier; impulsive, emotional, short-tempered, and rebellious...in some ways, Yzak reflected, he saw a lot of himself in that kid. But he had skill, that much was certain.  
>Rey on the other hand was calm, level-headed, and had a keen eye for tactics - and he was easily as skilled a pilot as Shinn, judging from his results at the Academy, and far more composed. Yet Durendal had chosen Shinn. "Perhaps he was aware of his potential all along."<p>

In the meantime, Shinn allowed himself a few moments' rest as he settled the Impulse, still equipped with the Sword Silhouette, into its spot in the hangar. As he opened the hatch, still not entirely sure what had happened in the past few minutes, hes saw Vino, Yolant, and numerous others waiting for him below, including Rey and Luna.  
>As soon as his feet touched the ground, he was surrounded, receiving accolades from numerous members of the crew before Aves came along and ordered them back to work.<br>Shinn made his way out of the hangar, and Luna followed.

"But really, what happened out there today? It's like you turned into some kind of super-ace or something!"

-"I honestly don't know." Shinn replied. "I remember how mad I was that the Orb fleet was firing at us, and that mobile armor grabbed ahold of me...and I felt I couldn't just let it end like that. And then...I don't know. I guess it felt like my mind became clear."

-"Do you mean, you lost it?" Luna asked, sounding a little concerned.

-"No, not quite like that...it's more like, I knew exactly what I had to do, and I did it. I'm not sure how to explain it."

-"Regardless," Rey interrupted, "You saved this ship. Thanks to you, we're all still alive." He put his hand on Shinn's shoulder, and continued. "Being alive is a gift - the most precious of all. Because it means there's a tomorrow."

Then he left, leaving the other two standing there somewhat confused at his words...

**March 2nd**  
><strong>Aprilius One<strong>

Several days had passed since Athrun's arrival in the PLANTs. He had taken the time to visit Nichol's and Rusty's graves, as well as that of his mother. His father...he still wasn't sure how he felt about him.  
>Meer had come to see him a couple of times, when her schedule permitted it. She was worried, but remained the same infectiously cheerful girl he'd first met. He'd learned a little about her as well, and regardless of Durendal's manipulations he could tell she genuinely, in her own way, wanted peace. She had a naïveté that reminded him of Lacus in the very earliest days, before Bloody Valentine.<p>

And he had made his decision, which is why he now stood in Chairman Durendal's office in a newly-tailored and freshly-pressed black uniform.  
>As he adjusted the collar he looked over at Meer, standing behind Durendal, and she smiled happily. Then Durendal walked up to him.<br>"Unfortunately, you are required to re-enlist, but I have decided to make you a squadron leader. You will head for Carpentaria and rendezvous with the _Minerva_. Once you are there, you will take command of the ship's mobile suit team. Your orders are here, as are additional orders for Commander Joule."

- "Right." Athrun acknowledged. Then Durendal handed him a small, lacquered wood box. Inside it was a polished silver badge, shaped like a spread wing.  
>"FAITH members wear those..." Athrun commented.<br>FAITH was an élite Special Ops unit, reporting directly to the Supreme Council. They were sworn to loyalty - to the Council, and thus to the Chairman.

- "I thought it best not to insert you into the regular chain of command. There might be problems. FAITH operatives are normally expected to swear an oath of loyalty. I will not require that of you; you need only pledge your loyalty to your own beliefs. And when necessary, I want you to use this extra power as you see fit."

Not long afterwards, his uniform and orders in a small briefcase, suited up and in the cockpit of the Saviour, Athrun was making preparations to launch. From the PLANTs, he could be at his destination in a little over 72 hours.  
>Then, he received a signal that told him he was cleared for launch.<br>"Athrun Zala. Saviour, taking off!"

**Orb Union**

Night had fallen over Orb. At the mansion that was now home to Kira, Lacus, as well as Reverend Malchio and his orphans, all seemed quiet. At the bottom of the cliff on which the mansion stood, a team of swimmers suddenly appeared, carrying heavy waterproof duffel bags and wearing full-body dive gear. They began to change, taking out body armor, night-vision equipment, and weapons from the bags, into which they stuffed their dive gear before concealing them.

"Okay. Let's go!" The leader ordered in a low voice. Except for one, each man carried a submachine gun. Suppressors were attached to every weapon, and they all had a pistol strapped to their waist. "And remember: We can't leave any traces on-site. And no witnesses." His order was acknowledged by silent nods. "Bravo Team is waiting at the extraction point. We get in, take out the targets, and get out. Prioritize #1. If we can nail both, all the better."  
>The six men made their way up towards the mansion. However, they were unaware that the building was equipped with a sophisticated security system, and when they forced the door they triggered a silent alarm in the room of ex-Commander Andrew Waltfeld.<p>

"Damn. Looks like uninvited guests." He muttered as he saw the incoming assault team on a video monitor slaved to cameras that were concealed on the ground. "Six guys with NVG; those look like Alliance-issue submachine guns...and they've got pistols too. And...son of a bitch!" He tore out of the room, grabbing a pair of pistols from a locked drawer in his desk, and headed straight to the next room.  
>"Murrue. We've got uninvited guests - take Lacus and the kids to the shelter; I'll get the youngster and see if we can't deal with these guys."<br>Moments later she was out, fully dressed an carrying her old service pistol. They split up, and as Andrew headed towards Kira's room he was joined by their guest, a tall young man about Kira's own age who had arrived that morning looking for him. Long-haired and handsome, he had a hard look in his eyes and carried a large-caliber pistol, of Eurasian make.

"I saw them out the window as they arrived. Do you think they're here for her?"

-"For both of them'd be my guess." Andrew replied. "Let's go."

-The both of them soon arrived, just as Kira got out of his room.

-"Canard...Mr. Waltfeld. What's going on out here?"

-"Uninvited guests, brother." Replied the other. Kira looked at him, still uneasy. He had only met Canard Pars recently, and he had heard his story - the Ultimate Coordinator project, then Eurasia. But the idea was still too alien to him. And yet, familiar in a way.

"Here," Andrew said as he handed Kira the second pistol. "Join Captain Ramius and look after Lacus."

-"Okay." Kira said as he reluctantly took the weapon.

-"Oh, and youngster? This time, don't throw it at 'em." Andrew said with a kind of amused expression on his face. Kira just shook his head, and Canard looked curiously at Waltfeld. "I'll explain later." The older man said.

Meanwhile, Murrue had reached the largest bedroom, where Lacus slept with the children, and was attempting to wake them and get them moving. Kira soon arrived, fully dressed. As they made their way out, they heard gunfire from the hall. Waltfeld had targeted one of the intruders and fired, dropping one of them with a shot to the head. The others retaliated with machinegun fire, and he saw two of them take the dead man's weapons. He did a quick head count and counted three guys shooting.  
>"There's only four here...where the hell are the others...?"<p>

Canard slipped into a side corridor, which allowed him to go around the attackers, and fired from behind, dropping another one with a first shot to the back of the leg at knee-level.  
>-"That guy's not getting up." The remaining two were pinned, caught between Andrew and Canard.<p>

Murrue, meanwhile, was continuing with the children and Lacus, Kira covering their rear, when one man suddenly appeared and opened fire. Ducking around the corner, she saw that he'd hit her shoulder. She told Kira to keep moving, and waited. Soon enough, the man rounded the corner, and she shot him in both kneecaps. He was wearing body armor, so she shot him in the head, then continued.  
>"Miss Murrue! BEHIND YOU!" Kira yelled, as he saw another man had rounded the corner. Murrue dropped the ground as they opened fire, the shots narrowly passing overhead.<br>Kira raised the gun. It felt uncomfortably heavy in his hand, but he aimed and fired, hitting the attacker in the chest. The man dropped, but after a few moments he was up again. They kept running. There was a shelter deep in the heart of the mansion. They had to get Lacus and the kids there.

Andrew and Canard still had the other two pinned. Suddenly, the slide on Andrew's gun racked back and locked. Empty. Before he could reload, the two attackers charged forward. Canard dropped one of them with a shot to the leg, then as the man turned to try to counterattack to buy his partner some time, shot him in the head.  
>The other, meanwhile, had discarded his weapon and drew a knife. He lunged, attempting to stab Andrew in the heart, but the older man blocked with his arm and reached for the pistol in his opponent's shoulder. The attacker managed to force Andrew's hand away and they struggled for a few moments.<br>It occurred to the attacker that Andrew was not bleeding, but before he had time to wonder why there was a faint whistle as his dead partner's knife, retrieved by Canard, flew across the room and lodged itself his back, severing the spine.

Then the bombardment started.

Grabbing the dead man's NVGs, Andrew slipped them on, and swore. There were two GOOHns, two ZnOs, and a new model mobile suit, all of them firing at the mansion. This puzzled him. He checked the dead man's weapons: Alliance-issue, both the pistol and submachinegun. However he recognized the goggles as being of ZAFT manufacture, as were the mobile suits, all five painted in low-visibility black color schemes. Deciding there wasn't enough time to wonder just now, he and Canard ran towards the shelter, where they hoped to meet up with Murrue, Kira, and the others.

Before they did so, he took the dead man's weapons, reloading the submachine gun with a spare magazine he took off the corpse, and removed the knife from where it was embedded in his prosthetic arm. The limb was damaged and would not move, so he handed the machine gun to Canard and kept the pistol. They arrived at the shelter as Murrue was attempting to open it. Also with them was Caridad Yamato, Kira's mother.

Canard hung back, taking stock of the situation. The mansion wouldn't hold up for much longer. There had been six men on the infiltration team, but so far only five were accounted for. Then he realized that there was an enormous bay window not far away that would provide a near-perfect line of sight for any shooter outside.

"For God's sake, everybody get the hell away from that window!" He yelled.

Too late. As Kira looked at him, he caught a distant, slight movement, and there was a short, bright flash from the trees across the courtyard outside.

"LACUS!" Kira yelled as he lunged towards her, trying to get her down out of harm's way, but he was too slow. Fired from outside, a single 12.7x99mm bullet shattered the glass window and continued on its course until it entered Lacus's chest as she turned, surprised and frightened, towards Kira. The bullet tore through her heart and exited out her back, lodging itself in the wall across the hall.  
>She fell almost gracefully, but she was already dead before her body hit the ground.<p>

Canard raised the machine gun and aimed through the scope, back-tracing the bullet's trajectory. He saw the sniper reloading a big bolt-action anti-personnel rifle, and fired. The rifle's effective range was normally far longer than the machine gun's, but in order to have a clear shot the sniper had had to move in to about 150m, which put him well within the weapon's 200-meter effective range. The sniper ducked for cover, and Canard stopped firing.

Meanwhile the shelter was open and the kids were running in, herded by Murrue and Reverend Malchio. Thinking that the coast was clear, the sniper reappeared. As he moved to aim his rifle, Canard put a bullet in his head.

"That's the last of them. Come on!"

Andrew went in first. Kira was on his knees, a shocked look on his face as he looked down at Lacus's corpse.

"There's nothing you can do, Kira. Let's go!" Canard said as he grabbed his younger brother by the collar of his shirt and dragged him into the shelter, which closed.

"Damn. Looks like those bastards got what they came for." Andrew fumed. Murrue sank to her knees, exhausted. Andrew saw the blood staining the sleeve of her jacket, and he helped her remove it. A bullet had entered the arm and exited cleanly on the other side. The wound was bad, but not fatal. He tore a strip off his shirt and bandaged it as tightly as he could one-handed.

-"They're Coordinators." She commented wearily.

-"Yeah. And they're no amateurs. Those guys are Special Ops, and they've definitely seen combat." He did not mention that although their weapons were Alliance-issued, the rest of their equipment was not. Obviously, neither were their mobile suits either.

-"Great. Coordinator Special Forces, and they have mobile suits." Murrue commented, her tone indicating intense frustration.

-"We've no other choice now. We have to open the Door." Andrew said gravely as he reached for the pink Haro, rolling forlornly back and forth across the shelter.

The little robot opened as Andrew picked it up, revealing two slender, golden keys. He handed one of them to Kira, who looked up. There were tears flowing down his face, and he stood slowly, wiping his eyes on his sleeve before taking the key.

Andrew led him to the back wall of the shelter, which he now saw was no wall, but a gigantic blast door. Two key holes slid out of concealed compartments to either side of the door, and Kira and Andrew slipped the keys in.

"Three...Two...One." Andrew counted down. On "One" they turned the keys and the door opened to reveal a hangar, hollowed out of the underground caverns that were found in the island, and blocked shut on all sides but two: The door, and an exit hatch above. The hangar was just large enough to house a single mobile suit, which stood dormant as the lights came on.

The ZGMF-X10A Freedom Gundam.

"Alpha Team's been taken out. Remember our orders: No witnesses! Find them and take out every last one of them!" The leader of the team, who piloted the new-model UMF/S-6 ASSH mobile suit, ordered his three teammates.  
>Suddenly there was an explosion from above, and something shot out from the mountain behind the house. A mobile suit.<p>

"What the hell is that?" He spat angrily as he turned to face the enemy. Then he recognized it. "I don't believe it. It's the Freedom!"

The five mobile suits turned and opened fire on the Freedom as it approached, drawing a beam saber with which it literally dismembered one of the ZnOs.  
>Blocking or dodging their attacks, it deployed its weapons - two beam cannons mounted in its wings and two railguns on its hips - and fired, blasting the two GOOHNs off their legs and disabling their main cameras.<p>

The remaining ZnO turned to track and fired, but scored only a glancing hit before it too saw its arms sliced off by the Freedom, which then flipped and shot its legs out from under it. Only the ASSH remained.

"How is this even possible?" screamed its pilot as he emptied the launchers on its back of its remaining missiles. The Freedom dodged, avoiding all but a handful of the projectiles.  
>The few that did hit didn't even make so much as a scratch, as the Freedom charged in and aimed a slash with its beam saber that, had he not dodged it, would've sliced off both right arm and leg. He parried a second attack with the ASSH's beam claw, landing some distance from the Freedom, and charged in, aiming to slam the blade into its torso. The Freedom bent and thrust its shield forward under the ASSH, which it lifted off its legs and threw.<br>The mobile suit landed heavily some hundred meters away, and stood to counterattack, only for the Freedom to raise its beam rifle and systematically blast off first both arms, then the launchers on its back, then both legs.

The crippled ASSH fell to the ground.

"Damn." He swore. They had their orders, though. He flipped a switch, then pulled the lever that activated the ASSH's self-detonation mechanism. As his machine exploded, so did the other four, leaving no chance of any of them surviving to be interrogated.

A few hours later the sun rose, and Andrew, Murrue, and Canard surveyed the wreckage. There wasn't much left, but there was enough to confirm what he'd seen: Two ZnOs, two GOOHNs, and a new-model ASSH mobile suit.  
>"So that one's a new ZAFT machine, then?" Murrue asked him.<p>

-"Yeah. I'd seen some early development data, but that's about it. They're a new model that came off the assembly line last year. It should be impossible for anyone outside ZAFT's forces to obtain one." Andrew replied.

-"We can't rule out rogue elements like the team that dropped Junius Seven or the ones that attacked Bandar-Abbas." Canard commented. "But one thing's for sure: their targets were Kira and Lacus...But why, though?"

Of course, the reason why didn't really matter; nor did it change what had happened. They buried Lacus that same day, on a cliff overlooking the sea that was located not so far away from the mansion.  
>In the distance, the memorial to the victims of the previous war was visible, as was the beautiful park that had been built there. Only the six of them, plus the children, were present. Murrue had called Cagalli, who also came out.<p>

"I'm sorry, Kira." Canard said, laying his hand on Kira's shoulder. On Kira's other side Cagalli stood, tears streaming down her face. Despite their differences, she and Lacus had become close friends in recent years, and the loss devastated her.  
>She silently wondered who could have murdered her and for what reason, a question that weighed on all their minds. Kira himself didn't move, but found at least some comfort in his siblings' presence.<p>

Several days passed without another incident. Cagalli had quietly launched an investigation into exactly how five mobile suits had been able to get into Orb undetected and cause so much damage. So far, nothing had been discovered, and the more she thought about it, the more certain she was that they would find nothing.  
>She decided to visit the memorial that had been erected for her father and the others who had been lost in the battle for Orb, almost four years ago.<br>As she lay flowers on the white marble stone, she distantly heard a news broadcast begin announcing her success.

"The Council of Emirs has made the decision to sign a treaty of alliance with the Eurasian Federation, thereby joining the World Security Treaty Organization as a member state. Eurasian Federation representatives are expected to arrive in Orb later today, and the official signing is to take place at a reception held this evening at the Seiran estate." She heard, and allowed herself a small smile.

"This place hasn't changed a bit." She suddenly heard a snide voice behind her. Yuna Roma Seiran. "We should look into getting your father and the others a more suitable memorial, though. Something more...dignified." He said, looking around. Then he looked at her directly.  
>"You really shouldn't be walking around alone like this, without a bodyguard. Orb is a safe enough place, but still..."<p>

-"What do you want? You came here because you wanted to talk, so spit it out." Cagalli retorted. She really did not want to have to deal with Yuna right now.

-"Oh my...first off, we're going to have to do something about that language of yours. Given your position..."

-"I'm aware of my position, Yuna." She interrupted rudely. "Now just get on with it."

-"I realize this is a little sudden, but I thought it would be perfect if the wedding took place the day after the reception. We can make the official announcement at the same time as we sign the treaty."

There it was again. At the time, marrying Yuna had seemed like the best way to strengthen a precarious political position and guarantee Orb's safety. But as she listened to him, she had doubts.

"The people have been unsettled by recent events. Doing this would reassure them that their leaders are as one when it comes to protecting the nation." Yuna continued.

Turning away, she began to leave without giving him an answer. Yuna made to follow, but as Cagalli began to climb the stairs to where she'd left her car the towering figure of Ledonir Kisaka became visible, a big pistol strapped in plain sight on his belt.  
>She turned back to Yuna.<p>

"You assume a lot to think that I would be foolish enough to go out alone, particularly in light of recent events." She said irritably. And she walked away with Kisaka behind her, leaving Yuna standing alone.

It was later that same day that Myrna, Cagalli's old nursemaid, arrived at the ruins of the mansion, looking for Kira. She looked around, astounded at the devastation and wondering what happened. She had overheard a conversation between the Prime Minister and his son, and had tried to get to Cagalli, but had been unable to.  
>So, she had gone to her brother for help.<p>

"Myrna?" Kira asked when he saw her. "What's going on?"

-"It's Lady Cagalli. It's...I overheard them talking, and I couldn't...I had to do something. It's that Yuna Roma Seiran. I overheard them talking about the reception tonight."

-"For the treaty? What about it?"

-"They were saying, they're going to announce it...that man is going to marry Lady Cagalli tomorrow!"

-"WHAT?" They all exclaimed. Myrna nodded.

-"It's been a long-standing agreement that a political marriage between the two families would be in Orb's best interest, from when she was very young. Normally, I'd be delighted for her, as long as Lady Cagalli was fine with it of course. But the Seirans are rushing into this and doing everything their own way, and..."

-"Well, you can bet the Seirans aren't in it for Orb's sake - they're trying to increase their leverage in the Government." Andrew interrupted, a distinctly unpleasant expression on his face. Kira nodded.

Meanwhile, Unato Ema Seiran and his son were overlooking the preparations for the evening's reception, which also served to prepare the wedding for the following day.  
>"Hmmm...she nearly did something irreparable with this damn treaty of hers." Unato commented. "However, we should be able to correct this mistake after tomorrow."<p>

-"Don't worry, Father." Yuna said, a smug smile on his face. "Cagalli may be the Chief Representative of Orb, but I'll make sure she understands her proper place in the big picture."  
>Unato Ema Seiran smirked.<p>

At the Seirans' insistence, Cagalli had been brought to their estate earlier that day, despite her intention to visit Kira before going to the reception. She saw that a wedding dress had been prepared, presumably for her wedding to Yuna tomorrow, and scoffed. A second dress had been laid out next to it, which she eyed distastefully. She was certainly not going to wear that. She opted instead for her green dress - the one she'd been given, years ago, by that woman...she was a little sad and frustrated by the fact she couldn't remember her name.  
>There was a necklace, too, which she also put on.<p>

She knew that Vice-President Marshall would again be present, but this time so would President Baum himself. They had arrived that morning, and had briefly spoken to her over lunch. Mina Sahaku was also back, and she would be present as well.

"That's an extremely elegant outfit, my Lady." Cagalli suddenly heard behind her.  
>She turned, and found Rondo Mina Sahaku standing in the doorway, looking appraisingly at the dress Cagalli wore.<p>

-"Th...Thank you." she stammered, blushing slightly.

-"Well, the treaty is signed. I must say, you did very well."

-"It was thanks to your efforts that this was possible. Thank you." Mina simply bowed, and left without another word.

That evening, the reception started off extremely well, Cagalli formalizing the alliance between Orb and the Eurasian Federation. She was congratulated by several parties, many from the Council, and numerous military officers. She spent a few minutes talking to them, then stepped out into the garden.  
>She saw that several Astray Flight Types and Murasames were on standby, which she guessed to have been at Mina's orders.<p>

"You look good, Cagalli." Yuna said as he walked up. "Though I wish you'd worn the dress that Mother picked out for you."

"Why should I? I've already got a perfectly good dress of my own." Cagalli retorted.

Yuna chose not to reply to that. There was no denying that her dress was an elegant one. He chose instead to change the subject.

"If we're going to announce our wedding, shouldn't you be there too?"

Cagalli did not answer, but looked up at a distant speck that had just appeared and was getting closer fast. _'No...he didn't...that IDIOT!'_ she thought, suddenly panicking as she recognized the incoming object.  
>It was the Freedom.<p>

The Astrays around the estate mobilized and targeted the Freedom, but their rifles were literally shot out of their hands. It was bedlam, everyone ran for it, and Yuna cowered behind Cagalli as the Freedom landed. As it reached towards them, he ran off, screaming, and the Freedom picked up Cagalli, then took off again, cradling her in its hands.  
>"What are you doing, you moron?" She yelled.<p>

"DON'T JUST STAND THERE!" Yuna screamed, grabbing the nearest officer by the lapel of his jacket. "Fire you fools, hurry! That thing's got Cagalli!"  
>-"Sir, if we open fire now, we might hit her." Yuna released the soldier, hesitating for a moment before he replied.<p>

-"Then get after it! Scramble every mobile suit here, and contact Military HQ for reinforcements! GET AFTER IT!"

-"Belay that order!" A clear voice rang out, the authority in it evident. Perfectly unflappable, Rondo Mina Sahaku stepped forward. "All units, stand down immediately."

-"What do you think you're doing? Don't just stand there you fools!" Yuna screamed at the nearest soldiers before turning on Mina. "And you...What makes you think..."

-"What makes me think I can issue that order? You overestimate your control over Orb's military, Seiran. Remember, that in the absence of the Chief Representative, the highest authority in military matters is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces or the Prime Minister. You are neither." She replied, superbly disdainful. "What's more, you underestimate Lady Cagalli."

Meanwhile, off the coast of Orb, the _Archangel_ surfaced. For three long years the ship had lain dormant in its underground hangar since it was returned to Orb and repaired. And now, it was launching once again. When the ship appeared on their sensors, the Orb Military Command Center scrambled a team of Murasame from the Second Escort Fleet. Detecting the mobile suits as they closed in, Kira opened the cockpit. Raising his hand, he reached for Cagalli's hand and pulled her into the cockpit.  
>"Wow," he said, "this is a pretty amazing dress."<p>

-"Shut it!" Cagalli retorted. Then Kira realized that he recognized that dress. However, he had more pressing matters on his mind.

-"Just hold that thought. And hang on tight." The two mobile suits closed in, ordering him to land immediately. "No can do." He said, and as he slipped by he drew his beam saber and sliced a wing off each mobile suit, sending them into a dive as they lost control.

Meanwhile, the ships of the Second Escort Fleet had taken off and had their cannons aimed at the _Archangel_ when they detected the Freedom approaching from behind them. On the bridge of the flagship, the Aegis-class _Tonbogiri_, one officer suddenly reported a communication from Military HQ.

"The Freedom has abducted Lady Cagalli from the reception - exercise extreme caution!"

-"What?" Colonel Fumihiko Todaka replied. "Lady Cagalli?...Cease firing! Surround them. Our priority has to be rescuing Lady Cagalli."

-As the fleet began moving to surround the ship, it began to move forward...and to submerge.

-"Sir! They're submerging...they're going to get away! We have to attack!"

-"We can't. If we hit that ship underwater and it sinks, Lady Cagalli might be lost...we are "exercising extreme caution"." Todaka replied. If it got her out of the clutches of the Seirans, it was worth it.

_'I'm counting on you, Archangel. Take good care of Lady Cagalli.'_ He thought as he ordered the fleet to turn back.

Now, it was up to her.


	8. Phase 08: Return to the Battlefield

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** As I mentioned at the outset of this project, it takes place in an alternate continuity, following my one-shot fanfiction _Alternate Fate_. This will come into play in a small way in this chapter, though it will make a significant difference later on.

* * *

><p><strong>PHASE 08: Return to the Battlefield<strong>

**March 7th, Cosmic Era 75.  
>Off the coast of the Kingdom of Scandinavia.<strong>

The _Archangel_ had ceased its underwater run and come to a stop, submerged, off the coast of the Kingdom of Scandinavia - a neutral nation and unaffiliated with the Alliance. Because it was of negligible strategic or military importance, the Atlantic Federation had generally ignored them.

Meanwhile, Kira had landed in the hangar and shut down the Freedom, and the two of them made their way to the ship's bridge. As they entered everyone looked at them, and Cagalli heard a male voice speak up.

"Hey there! I recognize that - didn't know you still had it."

Cagalli ignored Waltfeld's comment and instead turned towards Captain Ramius.

"Would someone mind explaining to me just what the hell is wrong with you people? Abducting a country's head of state practically makes you international criminals - to say nothing of the illegal technology in that mobile suit." She said, referring to the Freedom.  
>Equipped as it was with a nuclear fission reactor, in order to negate the fission-inhibiting effects of the Neutron Jammers and allow its reactor to function it used an N-Jammer Canceller - a device that had been outlawed in the Treaty of Junius Seven. The Atlantic Federation may have chosen to disregard the treaty, but Cagalli was determined that Orb would not.<p>

-"Yes, it was a bit reckless." Captain Ramius said hesitantly. "But..."

-"But we had no other choice." Kira interjected. "These are crazy times, Cagalli. And if you insist on doing stupid things like marrying Yuna Roma Seiran..."

He never finished his sentence. Cagalli strode across the bridge, raised her hand, and slapped him across the face as hard as she could. Kira recoiled, and when he looked back there was a long, narrow cut on his cheek - courtesy of the cut gem on the ring Cagalli wore, which had been given her by Athrun.

-"Are you a complete LUNATIC? Did you seriously think I would actually marry that moron?" Cagalli asked angrily. Without waiting for a response, she turned to Captain Ramius again. "I'm leaving. I don't know if you idiots thought of this, but abducting me leaves Unato Ema Seiran essentially calling the shots in Orb - a situation that is unacceptable. I want the _Archangel_ on the surface and the SkyGrasper ready for takeoff in thirty minutes."

And she stalked off the bridge.

**Carpentaria Base, Australia**

"The _Minerva_'s repairs are gonna be finished pretty soon," Vino Dupré said as he was eating. He sat in Carpentaria's spacious mess hall. Since arriving, there had been little for them to do, and they'd been able to relax a little. "What do you think? Are we gonna be heading back pretty soon? To outer space, I mean."

-"Probably," answered Yolant Kent, who sat across from him. "I mean, the _Minerva_ was built to fight in outer space - I think it'd be better off in lunar orbit than down here."

-"I wonder what's happening in the PLANTs right now." Vino said, looking worried.

-"What do you mean?"

-"Well, they did have nuclear weapons fired at them. I'm worried about my parents."

-"I'm sure they're okay..." Yolant answered, but he too was worried.

Elsewhere on the base, Shinn was headed back to the _Minerva _after running a couple of errands when he saw, in the distance, a curious red aircraft heading towards it. As he watched, it transformed into a mobile suit.

"Huh...a new model. Looks different from the Impulse." He commented to himself, then accelerated, in a hurry to get to the ship and get a closer look at this new machine.

He arrived just as the new model, its armor now dull grey, was moved into one of the empty mobile suit bays in the hangar. Lunamaria was also in the hangar, and it seemed everyone present had their attention focused on the new machine.

"What's the story on that new model?" She asked Aves, "Who's in it?"  
>Aves shrugged - he had no idea, nor did anyone else in the hangar. However Luna's question was soon answered, as the pilot left the cockpit, still wearing his helmet. In his hand he carried a briefcase. He wore a red-and-black flight suit, and gleaming on his breast was a large white emblem like a bird's wing.<p>

He set down the briefcase and removed the helmet, which he tucked under his arm.

-"Identification Code 285002. Athrun Zala, FAITH Special Forces requesting permission to board."

Luna stared, dumbfounded. Her surprise at seeing Athrun Zala back again, and as a member of ZAFT's special forces, was shared by everyone else present.

-"Uh...permission granted." she stammered. Behind her, Shinn walked up and finally saw the pilot of the new machine.

"Oh, it's you." Shinn said scornfully as he recognized Athrun. "So what the hell is this?"

-"Shinn! Show some respect - he's a member of FAITH now." Rey interjected, saluting Athrun as he did so - Lunamaria did likewise, as did everyone else.

-"What?" Shinn asked, then he too saw the emblem on Athrun's flight suit. Recognizing it as the emblem of the élite FAITH detachment, he hastily buttoned his uniform collar and saluted as well. Athrun shrugged and returned the salute, a bemused sort of expression on his face - though he had, briefly, led a small team in the past, he was unused to such formal treatment.

-"Is the Captain on the bridge?" Athrun asked as he turned to face Lunamaria and Rey.

-"He is." Lunamaria interjected. "I'll escort you to him, sir."

As Athrun began to leave, following Lunamaria, Shinn addressed him.

-"Are you back with ZAFT, then?" he asked, his tone still somewhat hostile.

-"It looks that way, doesn't it?" Athrun answered, then turned away and left the hangar.

-"So why exactly did you decide to come back to ZAFT?" Lunamaria asked Athrun on the way up to the bridge.

-"I haven't exactly come back." Athrun said vaguely, not wanting to explain himself. "By the way, when exactly did the Minerva leave Orb? I was told to meet the ship here, but nobody told me anything about the ship's departure."

Lunamaria hesitated before answering. "You know, I'm kinda starting to understand why Shinn is so touchy about that country...it's gotten kind of...nuts. You have no idea what we had to go through to get out of there - an Earth Forces fleet attacked us as soon as we left their territory! And the Orb fleet stopped us getting back, too! If it hadn't been for Shinn, there's no question the _Minerva_ would've been sunk."

-"But how? Didn't Cagalli..." Athrun asked, his surprise evident.

-"You know, it's a shame what happened, because I used to admire Cagalli Yula Athha. But now...I'm sort of disappointed. I mean, Orb goes and joins the Alliance...and then they said she was gonna marry some weirdo."

-"What?" Athrun replied, unpleasantly surprised. He was fairly sure who "some weirdo" referred to - he'd heard the Seirans were pushing for her to marry Yuna - but he never thought Cagalli would go through with it.

-"Yeah - I saw something about it on the news after we left." She saw that Athrun looked troubled as the lift stopped and the doors opened. "Listen, there's something else. I don't really know the whole story, but she was kidnapped the evening before the wedding; right now nobody knows where she is..."

Confused about what had happened and worried about Cagalli, Athrun absent-mindedly made his way up to the bridge, where he found Yzak. Arthur, the XO, was also present.

-"So. You're back, are you?" Yzak said shortly. Athrun laid his case on the desk, opened it, and handed Yzak his orders and a small, lacquered wood box.

-"Looks that way." Athrun said. Yzak scanned the documents and scoffed, then opened the small box and withdrew a white pin, identical to the one Athrun had been given.

-"He brings you back as a FAITH agent, gives you the newest machine we have, and assigns you to this ship. Then on top of that, makes me a member of FAITH too." He commented. "I don't know what the hell Chairman Durendal's thinking these days." The fact that both of them were agents of FAITH created a tricky situation, because it meant that both men had basically equal authority. "Either way, I'm still the one in charge here." He concluded shortly.

-"Just like we agreed back during the last war. Remember?" Athrun said, remembering an old promise they'd made. Yzak rarely smiled, but this time he did; he remembered too.

-"Yeah. Anyway, these orders are real interesting. You read them?"

-"No, I haven't." Athrun replied.

-"As soon as the _Minerva_'s ready, we're to make our way to Gibraltar, to assist the forces there in retaking Suez from the Alliance."

-"Support them in an attack on Suez? Us?" Arthur interjected, sounding surprised.

-"If the fighting spreads into western Eurasia, things could get very messy. And there's no denying Suez poses a direct threat to Gibraltar. I guess this could be called "preemptive self-defense"." Yzak added sarcastically, remembering Durendal's orders that ZAFT forces deployed on Earth were for self-defense purposes only.

-"Yzak." Athrun spoke up. "I'm sorry to ask, but I'm not exactly clear on what the Eurasian situation is."

-"You may not know that while they are signatories of the World Security Treaty, the Eurasian Federation did not join the Atlantic Federation in their declaration of war on us." Yzak began. "Since the Atlantic Federation controls territory very close to Eurasia such as the British Isles, this has caused a lot of problems. The Republic of East Asia, which is allied with the Atlantic Federation, is putting a lot of pressure on them as well.

What's more, although Baum has been largely successful in his move towards moderation, the governments of some parts of western Eurasia remain strongly influenced by Blue Cosmos and their ideology. This has had a couple of nasty consequences: First those governments, supported by the Atlantic Federation, are seeking to secede. Second, in a lot of these places the local population is more favorable towards Baum and against this move, which has caused a number of uprisings throughout the region. Of course, the military in those sectors is putting them down with overwhelming force, and the conflicts have been pretty brutal. And that's where we've been ordered to go."

-"Additionally," Arthur added, "the forces that control Suez are among those elements of the Federation that support Blue Cosmos, aren't they?"

-"You got that right." Yzak replied. "So we're going to need to be really careful..."

-"Uh, Captain. Do you know anything about what's happening with Orb?" Athrun asked.

-"Nothing since Athha disappeared. That fat pig Prime Minister of theirs is doing his best to cover up what happened, but rumor is the _Archangel_ and the Freedom were responsible." Yzak said, watching Athrun carefully for a reaction. He wasn't disappointed.  
>The news shocked Athrun - that Kira would've done something like that was definitely not something he could have expected. But if she was with him...<br>"Other than that," Yzak continued, "They signed a treaty of alliance with the Eurasian Federation shortly before the abduction."

-"Thanks." Athrun replied, neglecting to comment on the disparaging comment about Unato Ema Seiran - Yzak wasn't entirely wrong, after all.  
>He saluted, and left. If they'd signed a treaty with the Eurasian Federation, they should be okay. Athrun sensed Rondo Mina Sahaku's handiwork there, and let out a sigh of relief. As for Cagalli, while he was still worried, the fact that she was on the Archangel at the moment meant that she was in no immediate danger.<p>

_-'She should be fine if she's with Kira...in any case, I can't go back to Orb now.'_ He thought.

Of course, Cagalli herself did not agree, which is why at that moment she was wearing a flight suit and strapped into the cockpit of an FFX-550 SkyGrasper. A case behind her seat held the clothes she had been wearing when she'd been abducted.

The _Archangel_ slowly rose to the surface, and the catapult slid open.

She slowly pushed the throttle forward and the SkyGrasper's powerful vectored-thrust nozzle gradually roared to life. Then the catapult engaged and the small aircraft shot forward out of the catapult, slamming Cagalli back in her seat. Once the craft was out and she was free, she pushed the throttle all the way and the SkyGrasper rose and flew away; below, the catapult closed and the _Archangel_ disappeared beneath the waves. That was a post-war refit, Cagalli mused reflexively; the ship had never had that capability before.

Too late she realized that she could have ordered them to take her back to Orb directly. Still, she had planned out her course, and hopefully would not run into any Atlantic Federation patrols if she followed the course she had planned. What happened after that was up to luck. Shrugging, she turned north and began what would be a long trip.

**CVN-R19 ****_Jeanne d'Arc_****.**

One of the very newest of the Eurasian Federation's Spengler-class carriers, the _Jeanne d'Arc_ was currently deployed with four Danilov-class escort ships and two San Francisco-class attack submarines in the great choke point known, in naval parlance, as the GIUK Gap: The narrow area of open ocean between Greenland, Iceland, and the United Kingdom.

The group had been conducting exercises at sea for several weeks under the command of its new Commanding Officer, and were scheduled to put into port at Brest once their exercises were complete, while the carrier itself would subsequently continue on to its home port of Cherbourg. Though the entire crew knew that, while officially on simple exercises, the real reason they were out here was to keep a close eye on the naval movements of their erstwhile ally to the west. With the British Isles as a staging point, the Atlantic Federation's military movements were growing, particularly in the regions closest to the Atlantic coasts. She was just thinking of how likely the difficult political situation made it that an eventual blue-on-blue incident might occur when suddenly, the carrier's communications officer spoke up, interrupting her train of thought.

"Captain! New airborne contact, moving fast at low altitude. Distance 1200 and closing."

-"Can we identify it?" The captain asked.

-"No, ma'am. There's too much interference to be certain, but it does not appear to be broadcasting IFF." The operator glanced at his screen again. "Contact has disappeared."

If it wasn't a Eurasian Federation aircraft, it was probable that it belonged to the Atlantic Federation. The fact that it had been on-screen so briefly meant it had been flying at low altitude and briefly slipped up enough for the sensors to catch it before slipping back down again.

-"Dispatch Blackbirds One and Two for visual intercept." The Captain ordered. Though the ship was not at the moment conducting maneuvers, she had ordered two mobile suits maintained on ready-five on the deck. One was a Dagger, fitted with an Aile Striker. The other was a Windam IWSP. Both machines sported distinctive black paint schemes.  
>The two mobile suits were airborne within minutes and headed on an intercept course with the transient bogey's estimated trajectory. It was Blackbird One, the Windam, which spotted the aircraft first.<p>

"This is Blackbird One, I have a visual on the target; It's an FX-550 SkyGrasper, Atlantic Federation markings." The pilot transmitted the images he saw back to the ship.

-"Intercept the aircraft." The Captain ordered, recognizing the markings on the jet. "Negative preemptive strike; do NOT fire unless fired upon."

In the SkyGrasper's cockpit, Cagalli bit her lip when she spotted the black mobile suit closing in. She recognized its equipment as an IWSP - an equipment originally developed for the Strike Rouge, but never deployed due to its complexity; evidently, the Alliance had obtained and manufactured the design. Then she spotted a second mobile suit closing in, which she saw was an Aile Dagger.

"Well...if these mobile suits are with the Atlantic Federation, I'm in trouble." Given her location, this was more than likely the case. She swore under her breath; she'd been flying low to try to avoid exactly that, but she'd briefly stopped paying attention and slipped up enough for any warships in the area to detect the SkyGrasper. She'd slid back down and hoped she hadn't been spotted, but evidently she had.

She had a few seconds to decide what to do. If she opened fire on either mobile suit, there was no guarantee she would hit, and either one would take her out in seconds. Then a transmission came in from the mobile suit nearest her - the one with the IWSP.

"This is Blackbird One, hailing unknown aircraft; identify yourself immediately." At that moment, Cagalli's instrument panel blinked; she was nearly out of fuel.

-"Blackbird One, this is Angel Two. This is Cagalli Yula Athha. I'm bingo and requesting assistance." A few seconds passed before the response.

-"Roger Angel Two, change course to zero-five-zero and increase altitude for landing."

-"Thank you." Cagalli simply said. It was a gamble, but she no longer had a choice.

Not long afterwards, the small fighter touched down on the deck of the carrier and Cagalli opened the canopy. The two mobile suits landed behind the fighter, and the pilots got out. The Dagger's pilot was a woman, but she kept her helmet on and Cagalli couldn't get a good look at her. The Windam's removed his helmet. He was taller, pale with silver-blonde hair. He would've been handsome if not for a kind of coldness in his expressionless face, especially his dark eyes. He stepped forward towards the SkyGrasper. There were armed MPs waiting for her when she got out. She was taken, at gunpoint, up to the carrier's bridge - the Windam's pilot as well as the MPs behind her. There, she saw the ship's commander whom, much to her surprise, she recognized.

"You're Lieu...Captain Badgiruel!" she exclaimed. The black-haired former XO of the _Archangel_ nodded.  
>After the Bloody Valentine War, Natarle Badgiruel had left the Alliance military and moved to Earth. She had distant relatives in the Eurasian Federation, so she settled there around the time of Baum's election. When the war broke out she had reenlisted and been granted her former rank, then assigned as captain of one of the Eurasian Federation's naval carriers. This was her first time at sea in this new command.<p>

-"It's rather surprising to see you out here, Representative Athha." she replied, then dismissed the MPs. The Windam's pilot remained. "What might I ask is the head of state of the Orb Union doing out here?"

-"If it's all the same to you, Captain, I would rather not say just now."

-"Very well. Major, escort the Representative to my cabin."

-"Yes ma'am." Major Sven Cal Bayan, the pilot of the black Windam callsign "Blackbird One", replied flatly.

It was some time later that Natarle left her Executive Officer in command on the bridge and made her way back to her quarters, where she found Cagalli with the case that had been in the SkyGrasper, still wearing her flight suit - the helmet on the floor of the cabin.

"Well, Representative. Exactly what brings you out here?" she asked.

Cagalli recounted - briefly - the events that had taken place since her abduction. She was careful to avoid identifying where the _Archangel_ had finally stopped before she took off. Natarle, however, had a shrewd idea where Murrue Ramius would've taken the ship, but she decided not to act upon it.

-"Well, I for one am glad to see you're all right - the leader of an allied nation, after all. We'll get your SkyGrasper refueled and send you under escort to Brest. From there you can catch a flight that will take you home. You should be back in Orb in a few days; I'll call ahead and make the necessary arrangements."

-"Thank you, Captain. I'm very grateful."

Natarle simply nodded curtly, though a thin smile cracked through the professional façade.

Some hours later, a Jet Dagger in the traditional Alliance blue-and-white colors was on deck waiting for the SkyGrasper to take off. Cagalli made her way to the cockpit and started up the jet. Soon, both were airborne and on their way.

**March 8th, CE 75; Carpentaria  
>LHM-BB01 <strong>**_Minerva_**

Since the unexpected arrival, the previous day, of Athrun and the new Saviour Gundam, everyone on board was talking about it as well as about the Captain's sudden promotion to the prestigious FAITH Special Forces unit.

"Man...so, what's going to happen to us?" Vino asked. He was currently in the ship's break room, where Abby Windsor had told him and the others about it after overhearing Arthur, the executive officer, talking about it.

-"Are you for real?" Yolant replied. "It has nothing to do with us! FAITH membership is given to individuals. How could you not know that?"

-"That's right." Abby continued. "Only certain individuals are appointed to FAITH based on specific qualifications, including a stellar combat record and quality of character. FAITH operatives have authority that supersedes most commanders in the field, and are able to plan operations and give orders on the battlefield as they see fit."

-"Yep." Yolant continued. "Reporting directly to the National Defense Committee and the Supreme Council Chairman, FAITH operatives are the top élite of ZAFT. Now why would you be involved?"

-"You're not a part of it either!" Vino replied, looking both annoyed at his friend's slightly condescending comment and impressed by what he was describing.

-"Of course I'm not!" Yolant replied.

Meanwhile, Athrun was on the bridge, where Yzak told him, as well as the XO, Arthur, what their orders were.

-"So we set sail tomorrow morning?" Athrun asked. Yzak nodded.

-"Correct. And Carpentaria's received their orders as well; they've assigned us two Vosgolov-class submarine escorts for the journey from here to Gibraltar." He turned to Arthur. "Notify the rest of the ship - let's start getting ready."

-"Yes sir!" As Arthur stepped away to make the announcement and begin preparations, Athrun turned to his old friend and commanding officer.

"You think there'll be trouble." he said.

-"We have to sail halfway across the world from here to Gibraltar. It'd be stupid not to expect to run into trouble across that kind of distance." Yzak replied. "I want you and your pilots to be ready for anything once we leave Australian territorial waters." Athrun nodded.

Yzak, as it turns out, was right. When the _Minerva_ set sail the following morning, it was being tracked.

Lying in wait, hidden some distance away was the Atlantic Federation Spengler-class carrier _John Paul Jones_. On its bridge, watching as the ship tracked the carrier out of Australia's territorial waters, was Colonel Lukas O'Donnell of Phantom Pain.

"So we meet again..." he mused. "This time, we'll see if we can't take you out for good."

He turned away. He would lay his ambush carefully. And this time, the _Minerva_ would not escape...


	9. Phase 09: Ambush in the Indian Ocean

**PHASE 09: Ambush in the Indian Ocean**

**March 9th, Cosmic Era 75. The Indian Ocean**  
><strong>CVN-133S <strong>**_John Paul Jones_**

The Alliance carrier _John Paul Jones_ was docked at a small, out of the way base in the Indian Ocean. The base itself was under construction, its intent to serve as a frontline outpost to oppose ZAFT's Carpentaria, in Australia. Currently, it had a contingent of twenty-four Dagger-Ls organized into four-man teams, each led by a single Windam for a total of thirty mobile suits - though once completed, it would house far greater numbers.

At the moment there were no ships at its dock other than the _Jones_, commanded nominally by a veteran naval officer of the Atlantic Federation named Bernard McCaffrey. A battle-scarred veteran of the Bloody Valentine War who had originally enlisted as a mobile armor pilot, he had been among the first of the Alliance's mobile suit pilots. Discharged after losing his leg during the Second Battle of Jachin Due, he had been fitted with a prosthetic, and returned to the service in 73 - this time as an officer. Distinguishing himself as a first-class officer, he was soon given command of the _Jones_.

In spite of his reputation and heritage as the scion of a family known to be closely associated with Blue Cosmos, he did not share the ethnocentric view of the matter of many of his peers and was ferociously opposed to the organization in general, which is why he was irritated at the fact that the one truly in charge was Phantom Pain's Lukas O'Donnell, a man he knew by reputation and deeply distrusted. But he would have to put that aside, for now.

"The _John Paul Jones_ will be departing at 1100 hours. All hands to level one battle stations; all maintenance crews stand by at combat status." McCaffrey announced over the ship's PA system.

As this announcement was broadcast throughout both the ship and the base, the carrier's hangar was a beehive of activity. Though the Spengler could carry up to four mobile suits in its internal hangar, currently it held only three units: O'Donnell's mobile armor and two mobile suits - the Gaia and Abyss.

Meanwhile, Lieutenant Colonel Adler, the base commander, was on the phone with O'Donnell, and the conversation was not going well.

"Send out all of our mobile suits? Is that some kind of joke?" He demanded.

-"You seem to be underestimating our enemy - that's not a good thing for you, Adler. Yes, all of your machines." O'Donnell replied. "Our enemy is the _Minerva_ and at least one, probably two Vosgolov-class submarines. Even with everything we've got, it'll be tough destroying them. Or did you not review the data from the battle they fought outside Orb not long ago?"

-"Of course I did, but that's not my point!" The commander replied. "Our forces were sent here for one purpose: To build a frontline base to oppose Carpentaria. We are nowhere near finished here, so sending out all of our mobile suits is out of the question!"

-"Your mission is to do everything you can to fight against ZAFT as well as build that base. So stop daydreaming and send them out! I'll leave the Gaia behind as defense."

-"But...that's only one unit!" Adler protested. But Lukas had already hung up the phone. He swore angrily, then turned to the other officer who stood in the office with him, his second-in-command.

-"Send out our mobile suits." He ordered.

-"All of them, sir?" The other man asked.

-"Of course not all of them! Keep one squad in reserve for defense in case ZAFT gets close to us."

-"Yes, sir." And the other officer left Adler alone in his office. Soon afterwards the _Jones_ set sail and almost all of the base's mobile suits took off as well.

"Phantom Pain bastards." he fumed as he watched them leave.

On the bridge of the _Jones_ meanwhile, Lukas turned to the ship's captain.

"What about the Chaos, Gaia, and Abyss?"

-"They're ready for takeoff, sir." McCaffrey said evenly.

-"Good. Don't move the ship from its position." he replied, and left the bridge to change into his normal suit. Once he was done he headed into the hangar, where he found Auel and Stella already waiting. The latter was looking out at their machines, a sad expression on her slender face.

-"You're so lucky." She said. "You get to go out, and I have to stay behind."

-"It can't be helped," Auel replied, "You know the Gaia can't fly or swim." Which was the truth; much like the first-generation Aile Strike, the Gaia's thrust enabled it to make fairly high powered jumps, but it was incapable of true atmospheric flight. And its armament consisted exclusively of beam weapons, which could not be used underwater - where in any case its mobility would be severely hindered.

-"I also regret the fact you can't join us today, Stella." Lukas said as he approached. The two Extendeds turned towards their commander. Auel's expression was neutral, but Stella was beaming as she saw him approach. She ran towards him. He reached up and stroked her cheek, an uncharacteristically tender gesture but one which he knew she found comforting. "Unfortunately, that's the way it is. I doubt anything will happen, but all the same you be a good girl and take care of things back here, all right?"

Stella nodded, and the three of them made their way to their machines. A matter of a few minutes later, the Chaos was airborne, while the Abyss transformed to its submersible mode as it dove and accelerated towards their targets from underwater. The Gaia meanwhile leapt off the deck and transformed into quadruped mode, using its greater speed to jump from the ship to a formation of rocks partially submerged, from which she then jumped onto the island itself, reverting to mobile suit mode and taking up her position, from which she watched the Jones set sail, with the massive formation of mobile suits leading it.

**LHM-BB01 ****_Minerva_**

The _Minerva's_ trip across the Indian Ocean, escorted by the two Vosgolov-class submarines _Nyiragongo_ and _Acatenango_, had thus far been largely uneventful. Nonetheless, the ship's pilots - Athrun, Shinn, Rey, and Lunamaria - were suited up and standing by, with their mobile suits prepped for immediate takeoff if necessary.  
>The <em>Nyiragongo<em> travelled with the _Minerva_ on the surface, while some five hundred feet below the surface, the _Acatenango_ followed a short distance behind. Each submarine carried three DINNs as well as four underwater-assault mobile suits, and likewise had their pilots standing by.

This served them in good stead, as on the _Minerva's_ bridge Bart suddenly detected the incoming mobile suits. All three ships immediately went to Condition Red. The _Nyiragongo_ launched its three DINNs, then submerged before deploying four GOOhNs. Two of the machines were in the standard two-tone purple color scheme, while the third, piloted by the MS team commander, was white.

"Checking thermal patterns...Daggers - looks like twenty of them, plus four Windams, sir. " Bart, on the _Minerva_'s bridge, reported. "Total number of enemy units twenty-five, no, twenty-six! One of them is that mobile armor from Junius Seven!"

-"What? So that glorified Möbius Zero on steroids is capable of fighting in the atmosphere, is it? Well that's just fucking great." Yzak grumbled. "Where did they come from? Any sign of a carrier nearby?"

-"No, sir. There's nothing yet."

-"Well in any case, we don't have time to be figuring this out now. Lower the bridge! prepare for anti-MS combat. Establish a com link with the subs, and get the Impulse and the Saviour airborne. Have the two ZAKUs stand by for now." Yzak ordered, suspecting that if one of the new machines they'd seen in space was here, the other two couldn't be far. He then relayed his orders directly to Athrun in the ready room.

"Activate CIWS, Tristans, and Isoldes." Arthur ordered "Launchers One through Eight, load all launchers with Parsifals."

Athrun and Shinn were ready in moments, and headed to their respective Gundams. Rey and Lunamaria were next, and stood by in the ZAKUs' cockpits as the Impulse and Saviour were moved into takeoff position in the ship's two main catapults. As they were preparing to launch, Athrun opened up a line to the Impulse.

"Shinn Asuka."

-"Yeah?" Answered the younger pilot.

-"After we take off, I will be taking over the role of combat commander. Is that clear?"

-"Yes, sir." Shinn said after a moment's hesitation.

Moments later the Impulse was launched, docking with the Force Silhouette as it was deployed from the central catapult, and taking flight. The Saviour followed seconds later, and both Gundams joined the three DINNs already airborne and headed towards the enemy formation.

In the Chaos's cockpit, Lukas saw the incoming mobile suits and immediately noticed the unknown signature that belonged to the Saviour.

"Well now, what's this - another new model? From Carpentaria, I guess. You gotta hand it to ZAFT, they do take their MS development seriously. That's a good point for them." He commented wryly, then accelerated towards the small ZAFT formation.

Shinn attacked first, firing at the nearest Dagger. His first attack missed and the Impulse shot past its target. Turning around, he adjusted his aim again and fired a volley that struck the Dagger's backpack from behind, detonating its propellant and destroying the machine's torso.

"There sure are a lot of them." He commented as he took aim at another Dagger next. "Not as many as there were in Orb though."

He fired again, and this time his aim was true; slightly too slow to react, the Dagger was unable to dodge the attack, which pierced the cockpit block. There were three Daggers left, which all opened fire on the Impulse. Shinn blocked the attack with the Impulse's shield and counterattacked, clipping one of the three in the left wing.

"There's no way these guys are beating me!" He said to himself as he closed in, switching out the rifle for a beam saber and charging the damaged Dagger. The Dagger parried his first strike and countered, which Shinn blocked with the shield.

Behind him, the other two Daggers opened fire. He moved upwards out of the line of fire, and one ill-aimed shot from one of the Daggers behind him destroyed the damaged machine. Stowing the saber and retrieving the rifle, he fired at the two attackers; one parried the attack, the other was too slow and took the shot to the upper torso, which exploded.

Next a Windam attacked. Significantly faster and more agile than the Dagger and armed with a longer-range beam rifle, the Windam dodged Shinn's attack and fired a shot from long range, which Shinn narrowly avoided.

"Damn...this one's fast." Shinn muttered as he accelerated, closing the distance between himself and the Windam, which fired a volley of missiles from the launchers on its wings. The Impulse's 20mm CIWS roared to life, shooting down the projectiles before they could hit their target, and Shinn, again switching to a beam saber, closed to melee range and struck. The Windam dodged the attack, but Shinn shifted the Impulse's wrist and the saber's trajectory shifted, clipping off the front quarter of the Windam's rifle. Discarding the weapon, the Windam drew its own beam saber and attacked. At close range however, the Impulse's greater agility gave Shinn the advantage; narrowly avoiding the saber, he counterattacked with a fast stab that slipped past the Windam's defenses and struck the lower torso; raising the Impulse's blade, he bisected the Windam from torso to shoulder, and the machine exploded.

"All right newcomer, why don't you show me what you're capable of!" Lukas said as he closed to within striking range of the Saviour and cut loose with the two linear cannons and back-mounted beam cannon. The Saviour spun laterally out of the line of fire and accelerated, using the Saviour's superior speed in flight mode to slip past the Chaos before counterattacking from behind with both the "Super Fortis" beam guns and the more powerful "Amfortas" high-energy beam cannons.  
>The Chaos narrowly avoided the attack, but in the time it took to line up a shot the Saviour had slipped past again.<p>

A second group of enemy machines attacked Shinn, using their numerical advantage against him; Accelerating, he was forced to dive for the deck to avoid their attacks, where he found a second formation that quickly surrounded him. Forced to defend against the attacks coming from all sides, he increased his altitude, where another Windam was waiting for him and attacked.

"Damn it." He swore as he blocked with the Impulse's shield and counterattacked, which the Windam dodged. Additionally, his evasive maneuvers were causing him to drift farther from the ship. Athrun noticed this and opened up a line to the Impulse.

"Shinn, you're out too far! What do you think you're doing?"

"Huh. Some people are just born complainers." Shinn commented, cutting the line. He fired at the Windam again, and it dodged the first shot. Shinn however shifted his aim and immediately fired a second shot, which neatly clipped off the Windam's arm, taking the rifle with it.

At the same time, two DINNs attacked the Daggers from above, the surprise attack catching one Dagger unaware and destroying it. The encirclement that had kept the Impulse pinned broke as the Daggers shifted their attention to the DINNs, while Shinn closed in on the Windam, which fired two missiles from launchers mounted in its shield. Shinn evaded the attack and as he drew his beam saber the Windam discarded its shield and did likewise. The Windam parried the Impulse's strike with its own, then launched another counterattack. Blocking the attack with the Impulse's shield, Shinn kicked the Windam hard, throwing it off-balance, and struck before the pilot could regain his bearings, slicing it open.

Shinn next turned his attention back to the Daggers, just as one of the DINNs went down, leaving only one. Shinn switched to the rifle and attacked, careful to keep the DINN out of his line of fire, nailing one of the Daggers as it closed in to attack the DINN in melee range.

"Get back to the _Minerva_! I'll deal with these guys." He said. The DINN retreated, the Impulse covering him until it was outside the range of the Daggers, and it headed back towards the _Minerva_.

The ship meanwhile was also under attack; while roughly half of the attacking force was keeping the mobile suits occupied, the remainder attacked the ship itself, firing heavy missiles at the _Minerva_, though only a few had managed to slip past the wall of 40mm automatic fire thrown up by the ship's CIWS. Then Arthur ordered a counterattack. "Launchers One through Four, then Five through Eight; Parsifals, fire!"

A first volley of sixteen anti-air missiles shot from the _Minerva_'s launchers towards the mobile suits; most of them were able to dodge or shoot down these projectiles, but many were caught by surprise by the second volley that immediately followed; roughly half the attacking Daggers fell to the _Minerva_'s counterattack.

One DINN was currently in position above the _Minerva_, and as it fired on the remaining mobile suits its twin arrived, attacking the remaining mobile suits from behind, taking out two with a volley of missiles from the six-tube launchers in its torso.

However more experienced the DINN pilots were than their enemies, the Dagger was two generations more advanced than the DINN and they also had the advantage of numbers; the last four Daggers all attacked the incoming DINN. Though his comrade moved in and fired an attack that crippled one of the Daggers, the remaining three destroyed it before turning their attention to the remaining one.

At that moment, another volley of missiles left the _Minerva_'s launchers; though the Daggers countered the attack, the DINN's pilot took advantage of the distraction, shooting down two of the enemy machines.

The remaining one drew a beam saber and closed into melee range. The DINN reversed thrust and backed away as the Dagger struck, with a first slash that cut the DINN's machinegun in half, and a second slash across the torso, aimed at cutting it in two. The DINN's movement was not quite enough to avoid the attack, but it was enough to prevent it from being fatal. Raising his remaining weapon, he fired the DINN's anti-armor shotgun into its cockpit block at point-blank range.

"_Minerva_, I am damaged and unable to continue combat." The DINN's pilot hailed the ship beneath him, "Requesting permission to land."

-"Granted. Come in for landing through the port-side hatch." Yzak snapped, then turned his attention to the communication from the _Nyiragongo_'s captain.

"I realize it seems strange, but we've been searching high and low and our sensors haven't detected a single submarine or ship in the vicinity those mobile suits could have launched from - neither has the _Acatenango_." said the Captain.

-"So where did they come from?" Yzak asked. "Do you think it's possible they have a base somewhere in the area?"

-"It seems unlikely this close to Carpentaria, but you may be right." The captain replied.

At that moment, the _Nyiragongo_'s sonar officer suddenly spoke.

-"Sir, new contact approaching fast! Signature matches one of the mobile suits the _Minerva_ reported seeing at Junius Seven!"

"It'll be that blue bastard, I bet." Yzak commented. Moments later Bart Heim, the crewman in charge of the _Minerva_'s own sensor systems, confirmed. Yzak then he turned to Abby. "Have Lunamaria and Rey equip for underwater combat and launch ASAP to support the GOOhN team."

-"Yes, sir!"

The _Nyiragongo_'s GOOhNs made their move, approaching the incoming Abyss as behind them, the Acatenango launched two ZnOs as well.

Meanwhile, the two ZAKUs were moved into launch position.

"Beam rifles will be useless underwater - get the bazookas!" Rey said over the radio.

-"Right." He heard Vino reply from the hangar. With the bazookas plus the ZAKUs' railguns, they could at least provide some extra firepower against the enemy machine.

"Fighting underwater now?" Lunamaria quietly complained. "Oh for..."

The GOOhNs attacked first, firing a barrage of torpedoes from their arm-mounted launchers as they closed in. His machine much faster than its opponents, Auel easily evaded the underwater missiles and transformed to mobile suit mode as he closed in on the nearest GOOhN, using the physical blade of the Abyss's beam lance to cut it in half. Then he laughed.  
>"Sorry guys - you're outmatched!" He said, and moved in on the second GOOhN; before he could strike, his sensors warned him of an incoming attack as the two ZnOs fired their phonon masers at the Abyss, forcing him to dodge the attack as well as a followup barrage from the GOOhN.<p>

Countering with the six phonon masers mounted to the inside of the Abyss's fins, he shot the GOOhN, whose pressure hull collapsed as the attack pierced it, the pressure crushing the pilot as the mobile suit began to sink. A third GOOhN fired a volley of torpedoes from its forearm-mounted launchers that impacted the Abyss, though its Phase-Shift prevented any damage. Turning to the offender, Auel fired a volley of torpedoes of his own, destroying it.

"You poor schmucks." He said spitefully as he watched the GOOhN explode. He turned his attention next to one of the two ZnOs, but before he could strike his sensors rang and he spotted two additional incoming mobile suits - new-model production-types, armed with bazookas; Auel recognized their colors from when they'd fought ZAFT at Junius Seven.

"Take this!" Lunamaria yelled as she aimed the bazooka and fired at the Abyss, "it's a little something for showing off!" Rey fired as well, following up with a volley from the railgun.

"Heh. You don't really think that's gonna hit me, do you?" Auel asked as he transformed to submersible mode, its speed allowing him to easily dodge the unguided bazooka rounds; the railgun shots hit, but didn't leave a scratch. "I'll teach you to mess with me!"

He charged, targeting the red one. Both machines scattered, narrowly avoiding the Abyss.  
>The single GOOhN and two ZnOs attacked next, but Auel fired the Abyss's four shell-firing cannons, which faced to the rear in sub mode, and hit the GOOhN, which exploded.<p>

Athrun spotted the surface disturbance on the water caused by the GOOhNs' explosion, and contacted the ship.  
>"<em>Minerva<em>! What was that?"

-"It's an Alliance underwater unit - one of those three clowns that attacked us at Junius Seven; the _Nyiragongo_ and _Acatenango_ sent mobile suits against it, and we sent in Rey and Luna for backup. But there's no sign of a launch platform that we can detect." Yzak replied. "Can you see anything from your position?"

-"Negative - no sign of any ship that I can spot." Athrun said, and turned his attention back to the Chaos, which had deployed its gunbarrels. Though slower under gravity than in space, they remained capable of operation even on Earth, and the four weapons pods launched and fired a barrage of missiles at the Saviour. Athrun used the Saviour's superior speed to evade the missiles, turning in a tight inverted loop that allowed him to get an angle on the projectiles from behind, and he cut loose with the Saviour's 76mm machineguns, shooting down those missiles as he evaded another volley.

"Not bad...he's got nice moves." Lukas commented, recalling the gunbarrels as the Saviour transformed to mobile suit mode and fired its beam cannons at the pods, resulting in the attack narrowly missing.

Meanwhile, Shinn was at low altitude, engaged in combat with an enemy Windam. He fired the Impulse's beam rifle, but the Windam avoided his attack.

"Damn...I can't quite get him..." Even though the Impulse was faster and more agile than the Windams, the performance gap was much more narrow than compared to the Dagger, making it difficult to shoot them down from long range. Then a Dagger attacked, firing its beam carbine and a volley of missiles from the launchers on its wings. Shinn dodged the attack and countered, firing three shots that pummeled the Dagger's head and torso, destroying it.

Another Dagger attacked from below, a couple of missiles striking the Impulse and causing minor damage to the Force Silhouette, but the Impulse was itself unharmed. Shinn turned around and pegged it with a shot to the upper torso, then turned his attention back to the Windam.

He spotted it and accelerated towards it, but as he was closing in his sensors blared and before he was able to counter, something collided with the Impulse, sending it crashing into the water.

With the Impulse neutralized for now, the Windam increased altitude, the two remaining Daggers forming up alongside it, and the three mobile suits soared towards the Saviour from below, firing at it just as the Chaos did likewise, unleashing its gunbarrels. Athrun took a glancing rifle shot to the leg but otherwise avoided the attack, countering with a salvo from the Amfortas beam cannons that shot the two Daggers out of the sky.

Returning his attention briefly to the Chaos, he dodged another salvo, this time from the gunbarrels' beam cannons, and fired the rifle - destroying one of them. Lukas recalled the remaining three as the Windam attacked the Saviour from below, emptying its wing-mounted missile launchers and drawing a beam saber.

Athrun dodged the attack and blocked the saber strike with the Saviour's shield, but by the time he raised the rifle to fire the Windam had fallen back and was moving in for another strike.

Stowing the weapon, he drew his own beam saber and parried the attack, then fired the Saviour's CIWS at its head, damaging the main camera. Blinded by the sudden salvo, the Windam's pilot was unable to anticipate Athrun's next attack, which severed both the Windam's arms as well as its wings, and the crippled mobile suit plummeted towards the water below as Athrun, retrieving his rifle, turned his attention back to the Chaos.

As the Impulse rose from the water, stowing the beam rifle, Shinn saw what had hit him: A black mobile suit, looking like a BuCUE, with small wings protruding from either side of its backpack. He recognized it as one of the Alliance machines from Junius Seven.

"Bastard...you're finished." Stella muttered in the Gaia's cockpit as she recognized her opponent and charged, the Gaia's wing beam blades ignited, aiming to cut it in half.

The Impulse leaped back and countered with a downward slash of the beam saber, but the Gaia leaped nimbly sideways and the attack hit the water, which rose in a cloud of steam on contact with the superheated saber blade. The Gaia transformed to mobile suit mode, and drew its own beam saber.

"Shinn!" Athrun hailed on the radio. "Get back - you're falling into their trap!"

-"Shut up!" Shinn retorted. "I can do this!"

As the Gaia charged, so did he, aiming a pair of vicious slashes at the Gaia, which narrowly dodged and fell back towards the nearby island. Shinn followed, continuing to attack the Gaia. As far as he could tell, he and the other pilot were nearly evenly matched on the ground, both in terms of their skill and the capabilities of their machines. Suddenly, his sensors alerted him to another attack.

"What is it this time?" He wondered, and he spotted two anti-air turrets firing at the Impulse, their bullets pinging harmlessly off the Gundam's VPS armor.

Docking the saber and retrieving the rifle, he fired one shot into each, silencing them both.

"What are anti-air defenses doing in a place like this?..." He asked aloud, then looking past the smoking turrets he saw an entire base, which appeared incomplete.

"A base all the way out here? And they're still building it." Looking closer, he saw people clustered on both sides of the fence. On the inside, it looked like they were trying to slip underneath the fence to get to the people outside, and they wore civilian clothes.

"Huh? They're forcing civilians to work on it!" Then he saw armed military personnel, who turned their rifles on the escaping civilians and fired. Enraged, he turned the Impulse to face the soldiers, careful to keep the fleeing civilians clear of his line of fire, and gunned them down with the Impulse's CIWS.

Underwater meanwhile, the Abyss fired its cannons at the ZnOs. Both were able to dodge the attack, but Auel closed into melee range, switching to mobile suit mode, and hacked it open with the lance before it had a chance to counterattack.

Luna and Rey both fired at the Abyss next, which dodged and countered with a volley of torpedoes. The two ZAKUs spread out and Rey was able to evade the attack. Luna however was less fortunate, and one torpedo blew off her arm, taking with it the railgun. Slipping in front of her, Rey fired two shots again, which this time did hit their target - although they did no damage to the Abyss beyond the additional energy drain on its battery.

Only a single Dagger remained airborne other than the Chaos, both of which were engaging the Saviour. Blocking a beam cannon shot from one of the Chaos's gunbarrels, Athrun fired at the weapons pod just as its missile launcher opened, destroying it. The Dagger moved in at this point, firing its beam carbine at the Saviour. Athrun dodged the attack easily and fired the beam rifle at its backpack's engine pods, detonating both and destroying it.

"I think we've reached our limit." Lukas commented, "Perhaps we could have chosen a better stage. _Jones_, we're withdrawing - prepare to rendezvous."

He turned the Chaos around and began to retreat, moving away from the Saviour at high speed as he opened a communication link to the Gaia and Abyss. "Auel, Stella! We're leaving!"

-"What? How come?" Auel demanded.

-"Because all the guys we borrowed were wiped out, and the enemy found the base we're still building."

-"Who let that happen, you losers?"

-"Just calm down. I didn't see you take out any big targets today either." Lukas replied.

-"Oh yeah? Just watch me!" Auel retorted, and pulled away from the ZAKUs at high speed.

Rey and ZAKU moved to pursue along with the remaining ZnO, while both the _Nyiragongo_ and _Acatenango_ spotted the Abyss incoming.

The latter launched its remaining two underwater-assault mobile suits, but before they were close enough to intercept, Auel had spotted the _Nyiragongo_.

"The enemy's closing sir! Distance 200, speed 60 knots! confirming torpedoes in the water, sir!"

-"Hard to port! EVADE IT!" The _Nyiragongo_'s captain ordered. The sub began veering to port, but too late - the Abyss's four torpedoes hit the sub, rupturing its hull. As it began flooding the Abyss swept past, then fired a salvo from its four rear-facing cannons. The shots hit the sub's forward section, where its torpedoes were stored, and the entire front of the ship exploded.

From the _Minerva_'s bridge, everyone saw the massive spray of water caused by the sub's explosion.

"The _Nyiragongo_! Damn it!" Yzak swore. Then Bart reported a new contact.

-"Earth Forces carrier at four o'clock, sir! It's heading for the _Acatenango_!" Yzak knew the Spengler-class had no weapons capable of reaching the sub where it was deep underwater; however he also knew that they had an underwater mobile suit better than anything - well, almost anything ZAFT had in its arsenal.

Auel turned his attention to the _Acatenango_, but he suddenly came under attack as the two mobile suits it had launched fired their phonon masers at the Abyss, along with a volley of torpedoes. He counterattacked, but the ASSH was much faster than a GOOhN or even the ZnO, and both dodged his attack easily, countering with a salvo that hit its target this time, neatly shearing off the Abyss's right leg.

"Damn it. Guess I'd better get going. I'll get you bastards next time!" He said, and turned away, moving as fast as possible towards the _Jones_.

Shinn meanwhile saw that the Gaia had turned and fallen back as well. However, his sensors blared as he came under attack himself - a squad of four Dagger Ls and a Windam, the latter equipped with a flight pack.

He leaped back, bringing the shield to bear, but took a couple of glancing hit to the Impulse's leg and head.

"Bastards!" He growled as he took off, and the Windam followed, firing its rifle up at the Impulse. Turning towards it, he blocked the attack and accelerated, closing in to melee range. The Windam drew its own saber and parried his attack, then countered. He blocked with the shield, then shoved it forward into the Windam, knocking the saber from its hand. He followed up with his own attack, bisecting the mobile suit from the chest to the waist.

Switching back to the rifle, he turned to the Daggers below. From the air, dodging their attacks was easy, and he counterattacked with the beam rifle, shooting down all four of them before turning his attention to the base itself. He flipped a switch and the shield collapsed into a smaller configuration, then drew a beam saber as well as the beam rifle. As the base's anti-air defenses fired, he countered, obliterating the turrets with the Impulse's CIWS before turning on the base itself, destroying every structure within range using either the saber or the rifle.

"Shinn, that's enough!" He heard Athrun say over the radio. "They can't fight back anymore!" He ignored him. Once the base was leveled he stowed the Impulse's weapons and strode over to the fence. Reaching down with the Impulse's hands, he tore it out, then dropped it.

At the Impulse's feet, the civilians who had been in the base ran across where the fence had been, where they were met by, from what he could tell, friends and family on the other side. He looked down at the scene, and he smiled. Then he stepped away and took off, heading back to the _Minerva_.

The Impulse was the last of the ship's mobile suits to return. The _Acatenango_ had surfaced, retrieving its ASSHs and the sole surviving ZnO.

As Shinn entered the hangar, he also saw a white DINN, which he guessed correctly was one of the Nyiragongo's mobile suits. Next to that were Rey's and Luna's ZAKUs and the Saviour. As he left the Impulse's cockpit and headed towards the door, he was met by Athrun, who looked angry. Then, before a word was said, Athrun backhanded him across the face, much to the surprise of everyone in the hangar.

"If you want to hit me, go right ahead, but I don't give a damn! I didn't do anything wrong." Shinn said, surprised and angered by Athrun's reaction. "All I did was help those people back there!"

Athrun hit him again, then replied angrily. "War is not some game to play the hero. If you have all this power, take responsibility for it!"

-"Tell that to the civilians who were enslaved by the Alliance back there and gunned down when they tried to escape!" Shinn retorted, then he stalked out of the hangar.

The following morning, the _Minerva_ and the _Acatenango_ arrived at ZAFT's Mahamul Base, where they would resupply before leaving for Gibraltar. The _Acatenango_ would be returning to Carpentaria once its own resupply was completed. Once both ships were docked, Yzak left the ship, with Arthur and Athrun in tow. Everyone else remained on standby aboard, for now.

On the dock, they were met by a cadre of officers, one of which was the base commander. Wearing a black uniform instead of the green worn by the others, with a knee-length jacket like the one worn by Arthur. All three saluted as Yzak began speaking.

"Yzak Joule of the Joule Team. Commanding Officer of the _Minerva_. This is Arthur Trine, my XO, and our MS team commander, Athrun Zala of the FAITH Special Forces." The last name caused a certain amount of muttering among the soldiers who were meeting them, until the base commander spoke.

-"Excuse us. I'm Joachim Ruddle, commander of the Mahamul Base." He said, saluting. He then stepped forward, and he and Yzak shook hands. "Make yourselves comfortable - you've had a long journey."

-"Thank you." Yzak replied.  
>The group began walking away towards Ruddle's office, and the latter spoke again.<p>

"Can I offer you some coffee? This place isn't much to write home about, but we do get some damn fine coffee here."

-"Sure, thank you." Yzak said with a small half-grin, as he remembered the last time he was in this general region, and another commander who had been perhaps a little too enthusiastic about his coffee.

**The Kingdom of Scandinavia**

In a small out-of-the-way cove on the coast of Scandinavia, the _Archangel_ remained hidden underwater, their only link to the outside world a floating sensor buoy they had released that captured and transmitted news broadcasts down to the ship, as well as the occasional discreet run of supplies from the Scandinavian government.

Murrue Ramius was in her place on the bridge, Andrew Waltfeld standing close by. Also with them was Canard, and next to him was a younger woman with short, dark-blue hair and wire-framed glasses. Her name was Juri Wu Nien, and like most everyone on board she had fought in the final battles of the Bloody Valentine War, piloting one of the first Astray mobile suits mass-produced by Orb. Except for Canard, dressed in his usual black, everyone present wore an Orb military uniform.  
>Kira himself was absent.<p>

The huge screen to the right of the bridge was displaying the transmitted news broadcasts. Demonstrations, political posturing by Copeland and the replies by Baum, or the latest statements from Durendal and the Supreme Council.

"Same old, same old." Waltfeld said flatly. "Every day, the same old gloomy news stories." He took a sip from a cup of coffee.

-"Well, what can you expect? we are dealing with a war here." Canard replied. "Still, this news is a little strange."

-"How so?" Juri asked, looking puzzled.

-"This news, except for a few sound bites from Durendal and the Supreme Council, is all concerning combat within the Alliance or down here on Earth." Canard continued. "There've been no stories at all about any fighting in the PLANTs since the original failed nuclear strike."

-"As for the PLANTs, this is mostly what's on TV these days." Andrew replied as he switched the channel on one of the screens. The scene changed to a concert, where a teenage girl with long, flowing pink hair sang an incredibly upbeat tune. The resemblance to the late Lacus Clyne was obvious to everyone present.

"For our part, we have to be careful; one careless move on our part could give away our position." Waltfeld spoke again, eyeing the screen with distaste. "Needless to say, that would be a bad thing not only for us, but also for the government of the Kingdom of Scandinavia, which is providing us with support under the table. Besides, we can't make our move yet - there's too much we don't know."

-"What about Cagalli? Do we know what her situation is right now?" Canard asked as he turned off the sound. That tune annoyed him.

-"Last we knew, the SkyGrasper was intercepted by a Eurasian Federation carrier. It took off, under mobile suit escort, soon afterwards so we can be pretty sure she's okay." Andrew answered. "And the kid?"

-"Still in his quarters." Murrue answered. "He...hasn't been doing well since Lacus was killed."

-"Grief. He loved her - it's understandable." Canard said. Murrue nodded.

-"What's worse, it's the second time something like this has happened: During the last war, there was a girl onboard, Flay Allster. There was something between the two, and he took it very hard when she was killed during the Second Battle of Jachin Due; But he's taking Lacus's death even worse."

-"Not to change the subject, but what's next for us? I mean, since the Junius Seven incident, the PLANTs seem to be acting in good faith, which makes the Atlantic Federation and their allies look like war-mongering morons." Canard said next. "The nuclear attack on the PLANTs being perfect case in point."

-"But that was Blue Cosmos at work, right?" Andrew asked.

-"Right." Canard replied. "But even after that, Durendal didn't retaliate in kind; instead, he's fighting a strictly defensive war on the smallest possible scale. As for this..."

-"He's tricking everyone." Said a new voice, as Kira entered the bridge, wearing an Orb uniform. At first glance he seemed all right, but looking closely his eyes were red, and it was clear he'd been crying. His green mechanical bird was on his shoulder, and Lacus's old pink Haro was rolling around at his heels. "Who else could have ordered the attack? And as for these concerts..."

-"Well, you could say tricking people is what politics is all about." Waltfeld said cynically. He had himself a very low opinion of politicians in general. "From the little I know of him, Durendal seems to be a good leader. But I don't trust him."

-"Looking at the deplorable situation in Western Eurasia, I can't help but want to take the PLANTs' side in this." Murrue said, "Still, there was Lacus's assassination. And now, this...I just can't imagine he wouldn't know about it."

-"Cagalli said Athrun had gone to the PLANTs, right?" Kira asked. "I'm sure that when he gets back, we'll be able to find out more about what's going on."

And he turned and left the bridge, heading back to his quarters. Thinking back on his conversation with his best friend while they were both in Orb, Kira found himself wondering what Athrun was up to, these days.

And he hoped to hear from him again, and soon...


	10. Phase 10: The Soldier's Life

**PHASE 10: The Soldier's Life**

**March 10th, Cosmic Era 75.**  
><strong>ZAFT Forces Mahamul Base<strong>

"The situation here seems difficult." Yzak commented, glancing at a map on Commander Ruddle's desk.

-"It is. With the amount of battle strength the Alliance has at Suez, we can't afford to go in carelessly;" Ruddle agreed. "The easiest way to deal with it of course would be a descent operation from orbit, like we did in the last war. But for some reason, the Supreme Council will not approve that particular plan.".

-"I'm not surprised they didn't rubber-stamp that idea," Yzak replied, "after telling the entire world 'we don't want to acquire new territory'?"

-"Don't get me wrong," Ruddle clarified, "Nobody wants to carelessly escalate the situation; I fully support the Chairman in this regard. But it does make it difficult for us guys on the ground. And because we're trying to play nice, the enemy is getting away with murder."

-"What do you mean by that?" Athrun asked, uncomfortably reminded of what Shinn had said to him the last time they argued, the previous day.

-"It's a safe bet that the Earth Forces are planning to use Suez as a staging point for an all-out attack against us - first here at Mahamul, then at Gibraltar. However, they can't do that right now. And here's the reason." Ruddle indicated a point on the map.

-"Of course - the western Eurasia situation." Arthur said as he stared at the map - located critically close to both Suez and Gibraltar, one of the numerous areas of western Eurasia that was in turmoil as a result of the war.

-"Precisely. Because we control Gibraltar and the Indian Ocean, keeping this stretch of land from here to the canal stable is of paramount importance, and as a result the Alliance forces have been unable to marshall their forces for an attack against us." Ruddle explained. "So in order to suppress resistance activities in the area and maintain their supply lines to Suez, they've forcibly established a bridgehead here, at the Gulnahan powerplant.

-"To put in another way," Athrun began, "wiping them out here would not only cut the line to Suez, but it would significantly reduce their ability to suppress the resistance movement - indirectly dealing two blows to the Earth Forces in a single move."

Arthur stared at Athrun, surprised, while Yzak simply smirked. He knew very well that had he not deserted and fled to Orb, it might very well have been Athrun sitting now where Yzak himself sat - and the idea irritated him.

-"That's very concisely put." Ruddle acknowledged, impressed. "Of course they know that too. Their outpost is so positioned that the only possible approach is through the Gulnahan Ravine. They've placed a positron cannon here to defend the approach, protected by a monstrous reflector-equipped mobile armor. With support from the Hawkins Team we've already made an attempt to destroy it, with disastrous results."

Ruddle showed a video display that played back footage of the attack. The mobile armor was monstrous indeed - enormous and black, with a Dagger torso on a huge body with eight segmented legs, like a gigantic mechanical spider. As the ships and mobile armors attacked, it deployed a shimmering field of energy that blocked the shots and projectiles fired at it, as behind it a Lohengrin cannon on a fixed mount began charging. Then it shifted aside and the cannon fired, decimating the attacking force.

-"It's just like the one we fought before!" Arthur exclaimed, recognizing the same technology from the green flying-type they'd fought outside Orb.

-"And there's the rub. Our orders are to get to Gibraltar, but to do that, we have to go through this shit." Yzak commented. "Nevermind - if we're told it's our job, then so be it."

-"Very well." Said Ruddle, visibly relieved. "We'll discuss the exact timing and operational plan later."

Later, Yzak, Arthur, and Athrun returned to the ship. The hangar was a beehive of activity as preparations were made to their few mobile suits for the upcoming operations.  
>At the Saviour Gundam, Vino and Yolant were working on adjustments and calibrations on the new machine in preparation for the battle.<p>

"Man, those guys at HQ were so lucky!" Vino said enviously as he remembered the concert broadcast from ZAFT's military headquarters earlier that day. "Lacus Clyne hasn't performed a live concert in ages! I wish I could've been there."

-"You know, she's changed her singing style, don't you think?" Yolant replied.

-"Yeah, I noticed." Vino replied.

-"I always thought she'd sound better if she changed her style to what it is now. It makes her seem...younger." Yolant continued. "She looks cuter now, too." He added, grinning.

-"And don't you just love the awesome outfits she wears now?" Vino asked.

-"Oh yeah!" Yolant replied. "You can tell she's totally stacked, man. I can't wait..." What exactly Yolant couldn't wait for he didn't say, because at that moment Athrun stepped up, and they both stepped back, surprised at his sudden appearance.

-"Where is the Saviour's maintenance log?" He asked impassively.

-"Uh, yes sir! It's right here, sir!" Vino stammered in reply, handing the requested log to Athrun.

-"Gentlemen." He said, and turned around. Vino chuckled nervously, and they both sighed in relief when Athrun stepped away again.

-"Can you believe he's her fiancé? He's so lucky!" Vino said.

-"Heh...you know, it wouldn't be that hard to pull a few cables out of the Saviour." Yolant said, only half joking.

From where he was standing, and much to the surprise and embarrassment of both, Athrun addressed them again.  
>-"I can still hear you two...and everything you said earlier as well."<p>

-"Sorry, sir!" They both said. Shaking his head, Athrun walked away, leaving the hangar.

It was sunset when Athrun stepped out onto the rear deck of the _Minerva_. Predictably, he found Shinn standing there.

"Thought I'd find you here." He said.

-"What are you doing here anyway?" Shinn said derisively. "I would've thought you'd have all kinds of important stuff to do, being a member of FAITH and all." Athrun shrugged. Shinn's attitude was starting to annoy him, not so much because of the disrespect but because he reminded him so much of Yzak and the way he used to act towards him when they'd met. At the same time, he saw something of himself in him too - at least, the way he'd used to be.

-"You have a way of saying things that can really get on a person's nerves, you know." Athrun commented. "But what's really bugging you - you upset about me coming back? Or maybe you didn't like it when I hit you."

-"I wouldn't say I'm upset. But obviously you're never gonna find anyone who likes being hit. I'm just having a hard time understanding it and accepting your orders - there just doesn't seem to be a reason for you to even be here!" Shinn replied, glaring at Athrun.

-"Yeah, I can see your point. But is that the reason you won't follow my orders - because you don't like me being here?" Athrun asked, his tone hard.

-"Well...no." Shinn stammered, taken somewhat aback at the change in the older man's tone.

-"Or is it that you think you're always right, and whatever you don't agree with has to be some kind of mistake."

-"I never said that!" Shinn retorted, angrily.

-"Then explain that stunt you pulled in the Indian Ocean. Do you still believe what you did back there was the right thing to do?" Athrun demanded.

Shinn hesitated for a second, before replying with absolute certainty.  
>-"Yes, I do." he said.<br>Athrun sighed.

-"Shinn. You said that you lost your family on Onogoro Island in Orb."

-"I said they were killed. Because of the Athhas." Shinn replied coldly.

-"If you still want to believe that, I won't stop you." Athrun said dismissively. He'd already spoken to Shinn about that before, and did not want to waste his time doing so again. "But is that when you came up with the idea? You know - you thought to yourself 'If only I had more power'."  
>The comment struck a nerve, which Athrun had expected.<p>

-"What...why are you saying this?" Shinn demanded. Athrun turned away for a moment.

-"Anyone who's ever wept because they felt weak or powerless has had those kinds of thoughts. I'm no different." Athrun answered. Several moments' uncomfortable silence went by before either spoke.

"I was fourteen years old when my mother was murdered." Athrun said flatly. The sudden comment shocked Shinn - not only because of what he said, but because of the strange coincidence of their ages; Shinn had been fourteen years old himself when he lost his family. "Her, and over 240 thousand other innocent civilians. And I felt the same way you do now. But over time I realized something: The moment you acquire all that power, you become the one who causes others to weep tears of loss. And if you throw your power at others out of a sense of your own righteousness...then you become nothing more than a destroyer. And that's not what you are, is it?"

Athrun's words struck Shinn like a hammer. He looked back on what he had done, and he realized that, as monstrous as the actions of those Alliance soldiers had been...in truth, his own actions had been no better - in fact, just as bad: What could one man with an assault rifle - or even a dozen of them - do against a Gundam? They'd been just as defenseless against him as those civilians had been against them.

"Like I told you yesterday: If you have power, you have to take responsibility for it - Never forget that." Athrun concluded.  
>Shinn stared at Athrun, speechless for once. As much as he hated to admit it, Athrun was right - at least, about what had happened in the Indian Ocean, anyway.<p>

"We're going to be heading into battle soon." Athrun said after a few moments. "We are here to execute our missions as soldiers - not to pick a fight."

-"I know that much." Shinn replied shortly, though his tone was less hostile than it had been.

-"Then we'll leave it at that." Athrun said with a small smile. "Just remember what I told you, and you'll be a hell of a pilot some day." He turned to head back into the ship, but just as he entered, he looked back at Shinn. "But if you do forget, then you're nothing but a damned idiot!"

The attack finally began two days later. At the head of the formation, the Petrie-class cruiser _Bagley_, flanking the Lesseps-class carrier _Desmond_. The _Minerva_ brought up the rear, behind the two land battleships. The _Desmond_ had two GaZuOOT and two GuAIZ on its upper decks, while the _Bagley_ had four GaZuOOTs on its upper decks, and its hold carried a contingent of BuCUEs. A team of combat helos flew overhead as well.

A small jeep pulled up on top of a cliff some two hundred meters in front of the massive ships. Its driver wore goggles and a scarf wrapped around her face as protection from the wind and sand. Withdrawing a small transmitter from a jacket pocket, she activated it, broadcasting a signal that was received by the ZAFT ships. As the _Desmond_ and the _Bagley_ passed by, she began to move again, driving fast until she reached a position underneath and midway down the length of the _Minerva_, which opened the cargo bay underneath its bow and lowered a ramp. The jeep accelerated and drove up onto the ramp, which closed.

In the ship's briefing room, the pilots were assembling, having been ordered to do so.

"What do you think they mean by "local cooperator" - are they talking about the resistance?" Shinn asked as he sat down, curious about this aspect of the orders they'd received so far.

-"Yeah, I would assume so." Luna answered. "I hear the situation in Gulnahan is pretty bad."

Arthur entered the briefing room, followed by Athrun and a young girl in civilian attire - the driver of the jeep.  
>Everyone stood and saluted as they entered.<p>

"She's just a kid..." Shinn said as he saw the girl, who looked to be twelve or thirteen years old. Hearing him, she frowned.

"Please be seated." Arthur ordered, and the pilots all sat down. "Well, let's get to it then. This briefing is to discuss the final operational strategy for our operation to break through the Lohengrin Gate, an operation conducted jointly between ourselves and the Ruddle Team. I'm sure you all know that taking out this particular enemy will be a tall order; the Ruddle and Hawkins Teams both tried to break through once in the past, but they were...unsuccessful."  
>He turned the briefing over to Athrun, then sat down himself.<p>

"Right. This is a map of the Gulnahan ravine and the outpost known as the Lohengrin Gate." He pointed to the map of the area on the screen behind him, and pointed out two areas. "The town is behind this bluff here; behind it is the powerplant. The only approach is through the ravine - there is no cover, and whatever route you take is within striking range of the enemy's positron cannon. Even an attack from extreme long range is impossible, because the cannon is defended by mobile suits and a mobile armor equipped with positron reflectors. I understand you guys encountered a similar mobile armor in that battle you had off the coast of Orb, and Shinn, you were able to disable its reflector."

Luna looked over at Shinn, slightly surprised. The latter was seated with his arms crossed. He looked up at Athrun before replying.  
>-"That's right." He said, looking slightly pleased with himself.<p>

-"Well, we'll be counting on you again, but for something slightly different." Athrun said with a small smile. Our objectives in this operation..."

-"To destroy the mobile armor, blow the hell out of that cannon, and then go into Gulnahan, right?" Shinn interrupted. Next to her, Luna rolled her eyes. _'Here we go again...'_ she thought wearily.

-"That's correct." Athrun replied. The young resistance fighter stared at Shinn, surprised that Athrun was tolerating such insubordination.

-"I can do it." Shinn said contemptuously. Athrun turned to face him directly, now looking irritated.

-"I know you can. But now we need to talk about how we're going to accomplish these goals. Miss Coniel?"

-"Huh? Yeah, of course." The young civilian answered.

-"Shinn is going to be the pilot - please give him the data you're carrying."

-"What? That jerk? Look, this whole plan hangs on getting a pilot who can do some pretty hot flying. Are you sure this guy's really up to it?" She asked, looking at Athrun.

-"Say what now?" Shinn interjected, standing up and glaring at Coniel.

-"You're the Commander here, right? Shouldn't you be the one to fly a mission like this? If he goes in and screws this up then we might as well kiss my town goodbye!" Coniel protested, glaring at Shinn.

-"Who the hell do you think you are?" Shinn yelled.

-"Shinn, sit down and shut up." Athrun snapped at him. Shinn obeyed the order, reluctantly, but continued to glare at both Athrun and Coniel. Turning to the latter, Athrun continued. "I assure you Miss Coniel, Shinn is perfectly capable of doing this. Please give him the data."

Glowering at him, Coniel withdrew a small data file from her pocket, but she did not give it to Shinn - she handed it to him instead. Athrun almost smiled - this kid vaguely reminded him of Cagalli when he'd first met her; not physically, but in her attitude.  
>Athrun stepped over to Shinn and held out the disk.<p>

"Maybe you should just do it yourself, like the girl said." Shinn said disdainfully.

-"If I didn't think that you could handle it, I would have planned on doing it myself." Athrun said sharply. "But I think you have what it takes. Or are you going to chicken out after boasting in front of everyone that you could do this?"

Shinn hesitated for a few moments, but he finally took the disk.  
>-"Good." Athrun said. "Now Miss Coniel, if you would please explain our strategy."<p>

Taking the pointer from Athrun, she stepped up to the map and indicated a long, curved green line that went through the bluff on which the Lohengrin was located.  
>"There's a tunnel down here that even a lot of the locals don't know about. It's not that big, so mobile suits can't use it; but luckily it's continuous, and it exits right below their battery. The exit is blocked off, but one good explosion should open it up."<p>

-"So there you have it." Athrun spoke up next. "Shinn, you will launch in the Core Splendor, with the Impulse's Chest and Leg Flyers following you and tracking your course. The tunnel is too small for mobile suits, but this way you should be able to make it - just fly according to the data."  
>Shinn raised an eyebrow; Athrun seemed to have been pretty thoroughly briefed on the Impulse's capabilities. Still, this sounded interesting - though he hoped they were right about the tunnel's size.<p>

Athrun continued speaking. "This way you'll be able to slip past the enemy defenses undetected and destroy their positron cannon. I will lead the rest of our forces in a diversionary attack to keep the mobile armor away. Now then, it's time to go. Everyone to your machines!"

As the pilots stood and began filing out, Coniel moved to leave, but turned back, still looking at Shinn like she didn't trust him.  
>-"What now?" Shinn said shortly. "Something else you want to say?"<p>

-"The last time ZAFT attacked the battery, a rebellion broke out in the town at the same time as the attack. When the attack failed, the Earth Forces turned on us - those who resisted the Earth Forces faced unspeakable tortured, and many of us were killed. Who knows what'll happen if we fail again this time? That's why...that battery has to be destroyed! Otherwise..." Coniel was on the edge of tears as she spoked, her voice desperate. "I'm begging you...please, do not fail us!"

She finally broke down into tears, and Athrun laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. The anger in Shinn's expression disappeared, replaced by a cold determination.

-"I won't fail. I promise!" He said firmly as Athrun escorted Coniel out.

Lunamaria soon left as well along with Rey, as they followed Athrun and Coniel to the elevator that led down to the hangar.

"Good job back there!" She said to Athrun. "We've known Shinn ever since the Academy and he's always been like this; he was always arguing with his instructors! But you handled him perfectly."

-"It's not like that; I wasn't trying to "handle" him." Athrun replied as he and Coniel entered the elevator. "He's just a little...awkward socially. I have problems getting along with people myself, sometimes. But I know he's not a bad guy." Then he closed the elevator, leaving Lunamaria standing there, looking puzzled.

-"Uh...did he just...brush me off?" She asked as she turned to Rey.

-"Beats me." The latter said hesitantly. Shinn arrived just then and they recalled the elevator, boarding it when it opened and heading down to the hangar.

A few minutes later Shinn was in the cockpit of the Core Splendor - a small fighter that compromised the Impulse's cockpit block, with the autonomous Chest and Leg Flyer normally docking together with it to form the complete mobile suit. Slung underneath each of the Core Splendor's wings was a twelve-shot missile launcher.  
>He'd trained for launch in separated form, but had never had to do it before.<p>

On the bridge, preparations were underway, as the ships began the next phase of their operation.  
>"Lower the bridge!" Yzak ordered. Privately he had wanted to personally lead the diversionary team and have Athrun take out the cannon, but the latter had veto'ed that; besides, Yzak's ZAKU had been destroyed and they had been unable to get a replacement before they'd had to leave Carpentaria. He hoped they would be more fortunate once they reached Gibraltar - he was sick of sitting back and letting Athrun have all the fun. "Prepare for anti-mobile suit combat; after the Impulse launches the <em>Minerva<em> will move ahead of the _Desmond_ and the _Bagley_."

-"Activate CIWS, Tristans, and Isoldes. Launchers one through five, load all tubes with Parsifals." Arthur ordered from his station, as the _Minerva_'s numerous weapons systems were brought online.

Meanwhile in the hangar, Athrun's Saviour Gundam was loaded on the starboard catapult and prepared for launch, with the two ZAKUs to follow.  
>In front of Shinn, the heavily-armored launch hatch of the <em>Minerva<em>'s central catapult began to open.

"Hatch open, linear launch system for Catapult 3 engaged, power levels normal." He heard Abby on the radio. "Course clear. Core Splendor, you are clear for launch."

-"Roger. Shinn Asuka, Core Splendor launching!" Shinn replied on the radio. The catapults engaged as he applied thrust and the small craft's engines roared. The tiny fighter shot forward from the catapult like a cannonball.

Behind him, the platform that had held the Core Splendor slid back, and the Chest Flyer was raised into place, then launched. The Leg Flyer followed roughly thirty seconds later. The Core Splendor's tracking systems locked on to both Flyers and they slid neatly into position precisely behind it as he headed for the location where the tunnel entrance was located.

On the screen in front of him, the data they had received - a precise digital rendering of the course he had to follow - showed him exactly where to go.

"There it is..." Shinn mumbled as he spotted the tunnel entrance, and the Core Splendor soared into the narrow gap into absolute darkness.

"What the hell? It's pitch black!" He exclaimed. "Damn it! I've got to do this relying on the data alone... "Just fly according to the data" he said...that bastard."

The _Minerva_ moved into position in front of the other two ships and all three kept moving, until they entered the detection range of the enemy outpost.  
>Just as planned, they were spotted immediately - the Impulse was not.<p>

"Incoming heat sources from Area 1! Scramble - all mobile suits launch immediately!" The announcement came as alarms began to sound throughout the base, and the Lohengrin was raised into position and activated.  
>In the base's control center, the atmosphere was tense despite the invincibility of their defenses.<p>

"Identifying three ZAFT vessels with multiple mobile suits. One Lesseps-class, one Petrie-class, and...the _Minerva_'s with them!"

The Commander scoffed. "Damned stubborn ZAFT. Well, new ship or not, the results are going to be the same. Send out the Gells-Ghe!" As the base launched its defense forces - consisting mainly of Daggers, either in standard configuration or equipped with Jet Strikers - they also deployed their ace in the hole, the mobile armor Gells-Ghe with its impenetrable positron reflector.

At the same time, the Saviour was launched. Immediately behind were the Gunner and Blaze ZAKUs.

Meanwhile, the _Desmond_ deployed its BuCUEs - most of them standard models fitted with beam cannons instead of the original railguns, but the leader of the team piloted a Kerberos BuCUE, with its two menacing beam-gun equipped "heads" lending it the appearance of the mythical hellhound that gave the machine its name.

"Ascend, activate Tannhäuser!" Yzak ordered. "Be careful what's in your line of fire - we don't want to blow up the town. But we have to draw that mobile armor out!"

-"Yes, sir!" Arthur acknowledged. "Tannhäuser activated, targeting the enemy mobile suits."

Predictably, the mobile armor flying at the rear of the formation headed to the front and activated its positron reflector. Unlike over the ocean, the disturbance in such a confined area caused by the beam's enormous power created a shockwave that raised a cloud of dust and rocked the entire ship, as well as sweeping a couple of the BuCUEs off their feet.

Hovering low to the ground, Athrun issued his orders.  
>"Let's go! We need to lure the enemy mobile suits as far out as possible."<p>

-"Right!" came the identical responses of both ZAKU pilots.

"So, they're trying to use their own positron cannon to attack us from both the air and the ground. Not that bad of a plan, actually." commented the base's commander. "Too bad they don't have a shield..." He smirked, and ordered the Lohengrin aimed at the _Minerva_ and fired.

"Predictable." Yzak commented. "Descend, maximum thrust - evade the attack!"

The _Minerva_ slid downwards just in time to narrowly avoid the beam, which shot past a scant couple of meters above and continued on its upwards trajectory. However, the ship hit the ground, its course sending it sliding for several hundred meters sliding over the sand, rocking the crew. Several of them screamed.

Meanwhile, the two ZAKUs and the Saviour, along with the Ruddle Team's BuCUEs and two GuAIZ-Rs, were engaging against a force of Daggers on the ground. Despite their numerical disadvantage, the superior armaments of the Saviour and the Blaze ZAKU, as well as the speed and maneuverability of the BuCUEs, meant that they were defeating the Daggers. The Kerberos BuCUE that led the Ruddle Team forces was particularly fierce, cutting through the enemy forces with near-impunity.

The aerial Dagger teams meanwhile continued overhead and headed for the _Minerva_ and the other ships, whose cannons put up a hail of fire supplemented by the six GaZuOOT artillery units.

"Damn it! Recharge the cannon immediately, and get the Gells-Ghe back here! What are the Dagger teams doing?"

More Jet Daggers moved in, targeting the ZAFT mobile suit teams from the air with a massive missile barrage. In an instant the tables had turned as the ZAKUs and the others found themselves pinned down. Athrun spotted the enemy mobile armor landing on its eight segmented legs and begin to retreat towards the Lohengrin outpost.

Taking flight, he dodged or shot down the missiles headed his way, and headed straight towards the mobile armor, opening fire on it as he did so from long range.  
>He was gambling on the mobile armor ceasing its movement to deploy the reflector, and his gamble paid off.<p>

Detecting his attack, the mobile armor halted its retreat and deployed its positron reflector to block it, then countered with a pair of beam rifles, held in the arms of its torso. This gave him a few precious seconds, enough time to close in - he had to cut off the enemy's retreat.

As the battle went on, Shinn was still flying through the dark tunnel. Though he flew as carefully as he could, the Core Splendor's wings clipped the tunnel walls several times.

Suddenly a proximity alarm rang out and he saw that the tunnel floor rose sharply into a sheer cliff. Pulling back on the stick as hard as he could, he took the Core Splendor straight up. Carefully timing his move, he shoved the stick forward again and the Core Splendor dove, avoiding hitting the ceiling by mere millimeters. Behind him, the Flyers followed his course - just barely.

"To hell with that bastard and his "I think you've got what it takes" crap!" Shinn yelled to nobody as he narrowly avoided another collision. "He just didn't want to fly this suicidal maze himself!"

For all his complaints though, and as much as the risk of a fatal collision frightened him, the adrenaline rush caused by such a dangerous flight was thrilling. More than that though, the desperation of that kid in the briefing room, the idea that hundreds, maybe thousands of civilians were facing torture or worse if he failed, kept him determined to keep going.

It was up to him now. "I can do this...I have to..."

At last he reached the end of the tunnel. "Distance, 500. Locked on...firing!" He said. He opened fire, emptying both missile launchers into the rapidly-approaching cliff wall, then ejecting the empty launchers.

The cliff exploded in a cloud of dust and shattered rock, the mobile armor a dozen or so meters away.

"What the..." its crew wondered as a small fighter, followed by two oddly-shaped craft appeared out of the dust cloud raised by what had previously been solid rock.

As they watched, the Core Splendor folded itself and the Chest and Leg Flyers locked in, homing in on it from above and below, then docked into a single mobile suit, whose dull-grey colors changed to gleaming blue and white. It was carrying a beam rifle and shield and floated for a second in midair, before Shinn used its thrusters to accelerate its fall towards the ground - and the turret.

"What the hell is that? Intercept it! Lower the Lohengrin immediately!" the base commander ordered.

The base's defensive turrets roared to life, sending a hail of anti-aircraft shells at the Impulse. Shinn utterly ignored the attacks, which were incapable of harming the Impulse's VPS armor anyway.

A handful of Daggers on the ground however, armed with beam carbines, fired at him as well, and those attacks he blocked with the Impulse's shield.

-"Damn it, open fire!" ordered the Gells-Ghe's pilot. "We've gotta shoot that mobile suit down now!" The Gells-Ghe's two crewmen responded immediately, and the mobile armor's upper torso turned as fired its two beam rifles at the Impulse - a mistake. The Impulse blocked the attack, while the rapidly-closing Saviour counterattacked. Throwing aside beam rifle and shield, Athrun drew both of the Saviour's beam sabers and accelerated, dropping down on the mobile armor from above and slicing off both its arms.

As it countered with the beam cannons on its front legs, Athrun dodged the attack, and saw the retracting Lohengrin.

"SHINN! the cannon!" He hailed the other pilot. Turning his attention to the Gells-Ghe, he unleashed the Saviour's heavy "Amfortas" beam cannons, shearing off the front legs and their cannons, then finished it off with a shot from the "Super Fortis" beam guns.  
>The critically damaged mobile armor collapsed, no longer able to function.<p>

-"Oh, HELL NO!" Shinn yelled when he heard Athrun's message and saw the retracting positron cannon. Leaping into a thruster-assisted jump over the nearest Dagger, he took it out with a pair of snap shots that sheared off its legs.

A second Dagger fired and hit the Impulse's beam rifle, which exploded. He drew one of the Impulse's hip-mounted "Vajra" beam sabers, holding the shield in front of him to block its shots. Moving right up to it, he drove the blade into its cockpit hatch to the hilt, the blade driving into the pilot's upper torso.

Shinn leaped up to where the third and last Dagger still stood, mere feet from the rapidly-lowering cannon. Blocking its attacks with the shield until the last moment, he tossed it aside and once again struck with the beam saber, impaling the Dagger and killing its pilot.  
>With the Lohengrin retracted and an armored hatch closing over it, Shinn knew he had only a few seconds to act. He picked up the Dagger and threw it into the gap, his beam saber still embedded in its torso, opening fire with the Impulse's CIWS as he did so. The Dagger landed face-down across the closing gap and the shots pierced its backpack, then it slipped into the gap and the armored hatch closed over it.<p>

As the Dagger fell onto the Lohengrin its propellant detonated and the mobile suit exploded. This caused the Lohengrin itself to explode, and the catastrophic detonation of the weapon tore through the base, igniting the propellant and ammunition that were stored in it. The subsequent secondary explosions annihilated the entire outpost from the inside, contained as they were by the millions of tons of rock into which the structure had been dug.

"Mission accomplished." Shinn said smugly "Barely..."

When the _Minerva_ set down outside of the town not long afterwards, the Alliance officials that had been in the town had either fled or been killed in the riots that broke out following the base's destruction. The additional forces that had been stationed at the powerplant, too few to hope to oppose the enormous ship and demoralized by the destruction of what they had perceived as their undefeatable defense, fled.

The Impulse moved in and stopped just outside the town itself and Shinn, removing his helmet, rode the lift cable down to the ground, where the local inhabitants literally mobbed him, congratulating and thanking him for his role in liberating the town.

Coniel had rejoined her people as well, and they were just as ecstatic about her as well, one of them raising her up into his shoulders.

Athrun, from the cockpit of the Saviour, which stood nearby, watched with a smile. His expression turned grim however when he looked to the other side and saw one of the locals executing a handful of bound Alliance officers, shooting each one in turn in the back of the head.

"A job well done, Athrun." Yzak's voice distracted him as he looked up and saw his CO's face on the Saviour's communications screen. "We'll leave mop-up operations to the Ruddle Team. You and that nutcase Shinn get yourselves back here."

"Yes, sir." Athrun said, and left the Saviour's cockpit.

As he headed over, Shinn saw him and shook himself loose from the throng to face him.

"Something the matter? Did you take some damage out there - You of all people?" Shinn asked, but the tone lacked the usual contempt, and indicated more that he was joking than anything else. Athrun chuckled briefly.

"No, I'm fine. We did it - thanks to you." Athrun replied.

-"Come on, I can't take all the credit." Shinn said, glowing. "One thing though - I thought I was gonna die in there!"

-"Right."

-"You never said anything to me about the fact I wouldn't be able to see a damn thing." Shinn said, looking askance at him with his arms crossed.

-"Really? I did tell you you'd have to fly according to the data." Athrun replied, curious to see where this conversation would go.

-"Well yeah, but..." Shinn started, but Athrun cut him off.

-"Either way, you did it. You had the right stuff - and I'm pretty sure I said that too." He said. "Now come on, let's get back to the ship."

Athrun headed back to the Saviour. Shinn stood looking after him for a few moments. Then, with a shrug he turned towards the Impulse, and the two machines left and headed back to the _Minerva_.

All the way back, Shinn thought of the townspeople's reactions and of what he had done, a satisfied smile on his pale young face.

Whatever the future held for them, he had one absolute certainty: Even more than he had after the Indian Ocean scenario, he felt that here at least he'd done the right thing.


	11. Phase 11: The Hidden Truth

**PHASE 11: The Hidden Truth**

**March 12th, Cosmic Era 75  
>United Orb Emirates<strong>

A long-range diplomatic flight from the Eurasian Federation landed at the Orb Union's main airport/spaceport at Kaguya, where a two-seater Heli was waiting.

Inside the aircraft there were only a dozen or so passengers; most of them would remain on board as the craft left Orb and headed towards its ultimate destination - the United States of South America. They were a diplomatic delegation composed of delegates from a variety of the Eurasian Federation's member states, heading to Manaus in the USSA to speak with the President of that country, whose situation was no less difficult politically than the Eurasian Federation's own.  
>The only other passenger was seated at a window, her only luggage a pair of large briefcases. She was up and headed for the door even as the aircraft taxied down the runway, and the instant the craft stopped she was at the door. She turned back towards her fellow passengers.<p>

"Thank you." She said, meaning it.

-"By all means, Representative Athha. It was nothing - just a quick stopover on the way to Manaus." The leader of the delegation, a man named Jed Ziegler, replied.

-"Well all the same, thank you. Give my regards to Vice-President Marshall when you see him." she said, feeling certain that if Marshall hadn't been directly involved in getting her on this flight, he at least knew about it.

-"I'll be sure to pass it along when I return." Ziegler said shrewdly.

Cagalli Yula Athha climbed down the ramp and headed towards the Heli, lugging her two briefcases. She would have preferred taking the SkyGrasper all the way, but there had been two problems: First, the SkyGrasper did not have anywhere near the range necessary for such a long journey, so multiple refueling stops in the Eurasian Federation and Equatorial Union would have had to be arranged - a daunting proposition. Second, after leaving the _Jeanne D'Arc_ they'd hit foul weather on the way to Brest, and the SkyGrasper had been damaged. Because it was a craft that was no longer in production, repairs would have taken far too long due to the scarcity of available parts - there never were a large number of the aircraft manufactured in the first place.

So instead she had waited a few days and they had discreetly slipped her onto a plane to Moscow, where she had boarded this long-range diplomatic flight. Her name did not appear on the passenger list for either aircraft, nor in the records of any of the airports where they had stopped.  
>But finally, she was home. Almost.<p>

When the Heli landed, she found Rondo Mina Sahaku and Unato Ema Seiran waiting for her. Seiran looked smug, which worried Cagalli.  
>She walked straight up to them.<p>

-"Representative, how good to see you back safe again." Unato began, but she cut him off.

-"Where is the _Takemikazuchi_?" The _Takemikazuchi_ was an enormous supercarrier, far larger than the Alliance's Spengler-class and with nearly ten times the mobile weapon capacity. It had been designed as the cornerstone of Orb's defensive fleet. And it was missing from its berth at the nation's military port. Several escort ships were missing as well.

-"I have sent an expeditionary fleet to the Black Sea, with the _Takemikazuchi_ as its flagship...at the request of the Eurasian Federation, with whom we are now allied as a result of the Treaty we signed with them." He lied. Actually, the demand for reinforcement had not come directly from the Eurasian Federation, though the idea to use that nation as justification had been suggested to him - specifically, it was one of the breakaway regions of Western Eurasia covertly supported by the Atlantic Federation, and the order had come through the latter. But obviously, he was not about to tell her that. "Yuna has gone with them as fleet commander, in order to ensure that our ideals are followed."

-"You really think I'm an idiot, don't you?" She glowered. "To make sure our ideals are followed? _Your_ ideals maybe, but not those of Orb, or you would not have sent the fleet at all, leaving our nation essentially defenseless against any potential attack - I remind you that our treaty makes no provisions of any kind for military aid specifically to prevent a situation like this." Cagalli retorted, though she refrained from voicing her opinion that Yuna was too idiotic to command so much as a rowboat, never mind a naval fleet led by the largest aircraft carrier currently in existence.

-"Perhaps so, but that does not mean we cannot provide such aid when requested - it means we do not have to." Unato replied condescendingly.

-"I had given specific orders that the Second Defense Fleet and the _Takemikazuchi_ were to be used only to defend Orb and prevent any enemy from burning our nation to the ground again. Not only did you deliberately violate those orders, but you violated the very ideals of our nation. Get out of my sight."

As Seiran left, she turned towards Mina. "I need you to find out as quickly as possible where our fleet is, and get them back. Let me know when you've established contact with them."

-"Of course." Rondo Mina Sahaku answered, and walked away. Sighing, Cagalli took her briefcases and headed for her office.

_'At least that moron Yuna isn't here to annoy me.'_ She thought. She was also thankful that she had assigned Colonel Todaka to command the _Takemikazuchi_. He at least was a man who truly believed in the ideals of Orb.

**ZAFT Forces Bandirma Base  
>Black Sea<strong>

"It seems ages since we have been to a place this nice." Arthur commented as he and Yzak disembarked. The _Minerva_ was docked at ZAFT's small coastal base in Bandirma, which was itself a beautiful city, its architecture typical of cities on the Black Sea.

-"I would have to agree," Yzak replied, "Up to now it's been nothing but ocean, mountain, and military bases. I think everyone will appreciate a couple of days' R&R while we resupply."

Looking to the side, Yzak saw that there was a huge crowd of ZAFT soldiers gathered in a large area near the edge of the base, where a huge stage backed by a massive display had been set up. Outside the fences there was a crowd of civilians that was no less enormous. "Well what do we have here?" Yzak asked.

-"I don't know, sir. Your guess is as good as mine."

Their question was answered moments later as music began to play, and three mobile suits suddenly appeared. One of them was a DINN, the second one a new model. Colored gleaming, two-tone orange, it bore a passing resemblance to the ZAKU Warrior, and Yzak guessed that it was an aerial mobile suit in the same general lineage. The two flight-types were supporting a ZAKU Warrior, painted in painfully bright pink colors, and in the ZAKU Warrior's hand was a young girl with long, straight pink hair.

-"Ah, yes. It's Lacus Clyne. I guess Bandirma's the next stop on that tour she's on." Yzak said. "Well, Athrun should be pleased." He added sarcastically as the ZAKU was set down on the stage and the pop idol began to sing.

"Pleased" did not exactly describe how Athrun felt when he found out. As the concert began playing on the TV screens in the _Minerva_'s break room, he stepped back, his expression surprised and a little embarrassed - he hoped he wouldn't have to meet her again, though he was not optimistic about his chances.

He was right. At the insistence of Vino and Yolant, the whole lot of them left the ship to get a closer look. The two maintenance techs frayed their way through the crowd to get as close as they could, while Shinn stayed back, a puzzled expression on his face.  
>Athrun and Lunamaria did likewise, as Athrun found himself remembering the conversation he'd overheard between Vino and Yolant a few days earlier. He shook his head.<p>

-"Did you know she was going to be here?" Luna asked him.

-"Uh...well, no I didn't." Athrun replied.

-"Oh? Well, it's not as if either of you had the luxury of keeping in touch 24/7." Lunamaria replied, smiling. "You're both busy people!"

-"Yeah, I suppose." Athrun said absently. He thought Lunamaria might've been being sarcastic, but he ignored it. As he looked around he saw, some distance away, Chairman Durendal, along with an entourage of lavender-clad officers, and briefly wondered what he could possibly be doing in a place like this...

The crew of the _Minerva_ had been given a couple of days' shore leave after the continuous battles they had been in, so after the concert a few of them were considering going into town - Lunamaria said she needed to pick up a few things. Yolant really wanted to see if he could find a poster of Lacus Clyne while they had the chance, so he said he'd be going too. They talked Shinn into coming along, so the three of them, in civilian garb, left the base and headed into town. Once they parked the car, they went their separate ways after agreeing to meet back at the car in a couple of hours. Lunamaria went her own way, and Yolant and Shinn went in a separate direction.

An hour or so later Yolant found what he'd been looking for, and bought two posters - one each for himself and Vino. Shinn didn't buy anything.  
>They were on the way back to the car, and took a shortcut through a narrow alley between two shops. Shinn was walking in front and as he stepped out of the alley, someone collided straight into him. Reflexively, he reached out to stop the other person's fall.<p>

"Are you okay?" He asked. She turned to face him, and at that moment, two things occurred to Shinn: First, the girl that had run into him, who had short, blonde hair and bright, violet eyes, was extremely pretty. Second, when he stopped her fall he had unwittingly grabbed ahold of her chest, which meant that his hands were on her breasts. He blushed violently as he realized this, just as the girl, glaring at him over her shoulder, shook herself loose and ran off down the street.

"You grabbed her rack, didn't you?" He heard from behind him. Yolant of course had seen the whole thing, and he was grinning. Shinn turned even redder as he heard him.

-"Wha...I..."

-"You lucky pervert." Yolant quipped, and walked past Shinn.

-"I didn't...Yolant!" Shinn yelled as he ran after his friend.

That evening Yzak and Athrun as well as Shinn, Lunamaria and Rey were picked up by a black limousine, which led them to an opulent building in the center of town. They were met by a slightly older officer in ZAFT Red uniform, the white pin of a FAITH operative glimmering on his lapel.  
>The four of them were led to a sprawling terrace, where they saw Durendal sitting at a long table.<p>

"Excuse me, sir. The mobile suit pilots from the _Minerva_ have arrived." Said the officer. Yzak smirked at those words. _'Haven't done much piloting these days.'_ he thought. He glanced out past the Chairman at the new model mobile suit that stood on the ground behind the building.

"Ah, Athrun." Durendal said as he stood and walked towards the six of them. "It has been a while."

The five of them saluted, then as Durendal held out his hand, Athrun shook it. Yzak frowned.

-"Chairman Durendal." Athrun acknowledged.

-"Commander Jule," Durendal turned to Yzak. "It's a pleasure seeing you again as well."

-"Sir." Yzak replied stiffly as he shook Durendal's hand. The other pilots also lowered their hands.

-"And you are?" Durendal asked as he turned towards the others, who introduced themselves as well.

-"Ah, yes. I have heard quite a lot about you." Durendal said pleasantly to Shinn when he introduced himself. "Your accomplishments in these short months have been quite impressive, young man. In fact you've been recommended for a decoration - you should have the results shortly."

To say that Shinn was surprised at this sudden announcement was an understatement.  
>-"Th-thank you very much, sir!" he said gratefully.<p>

Following Durendal's lead, they all sat down at the long table, Durendal addressed Shinn again as they were all served coffee.  
>-"What you accomplished at the Lohengrin Gate was especially impressive - and to think that the engagement at Junius Seven was your first sortie."<p>

-"You're too kind, sir." Shinn said in response, blushing slightly at the compliment. "Commander Zala deserves the credit for a well-planned operation. I...well, I just followed orders, sir."

-"This great city was liberated in a large part thanks to your efforts in taking out that enemy emplacement." Durendal said, looking across the table at all of them. "I am proud of each and every one of you."

-"Thank you very much, sir." Lunamaria said. Athrun was silent, looking preoccupied.

-"The world currently, as you know, is in a state of turmoil." Durendal began to speak again.

-"Have there been any new developments out in space?" Yzak asked, thinking of his former command and worried in particular about Shiho and Dearka. "What about the Earth Forces on the moon?"

-"Nothing has changed," Durendal answered, "A minor skirmish every so often with forces launched out of Daedalus Base, but nothing else. And as for Earth, well I'm in the dark here as well. The political and military situation is complex - so many variables to consider..."

-"Has there been any progress towards a ceasefire or an end to the war?" Athrun asked.

-"Unfortunately not. President Baum of course has been outspoken about his desire to end the hostilities, but President Copeland and the Atlantic Federation remain unwilling to compromise on anything." Durendal said, addressing the table at large.

"Perhaps this is a not a subject I should be raising in front of such fine soldiers as yourselves," Durendal continued, "but ending a war - choosing to walk a path that does not involve fighting - is much harder than making the decision to go to war."

-"Yes, but..." Shinn started to interrupt, but stopped with a hasty apology.

-"No, by all means if you have something to say, go right ahead. I value the opinions of the ones fighting in the front lines." Durendal said. "You could say this is the reason I invited you here."

Shinn hesitated, but steeling himself as he thought of the things he had seen and done, he began to speak again.

-"I agree that it is important to avoid fighting whenever we can, sir. But if the enemy is threatening us, then we have no other choice. Unless we don't fight when there is an obvious need, then we won't be able to protect anything...not even ourselves. Innocent people, those who want to have normal, peaceful lives, should be protected. And if we have to fight to make that happen, then so be it."

Athrun looked at Shinn, not altogether surprised at what he was saying, but surprised at how closely it echoed something he had once heard from someone else, years before. _If there are things you want to protect, sometimes you've got to fight for them. _His own words on the subject floated back to his recollection. But then something else he had been told occurred to him, and he spoke.

-"But, there's a problem with that." He began. "A close friend of mine once asked me a question: If a person kills for vengeance, and then is killed for being a killer, then how will we ever find peace? When asked that question, I was unable to find an answer...I still haven't. That's one of the reasons I'm here."

Durendal stood, walking towards the edge of the balcony. "Yes, that is the essential problem." he said. "Why do we keep fighting if there is no end in sight? Why don't wars ever simply go away - in spite of the cries throughout history of the people who claim they hate war and the pain it brings? What do you think, Shinn?"

Shinn hesitated, wondering why Durendal was asking this question of him. He thought about it for a moment before answering.  
>-"I think...that it's because throughout history, there have always been stupid, selfish people, like Blue Cosmos and the Atlantic Federation, who have caused them...Am I wrong?"<p>

-"No, it is true that there are many people like that. People who hate, fear, and despise those who are different, or who have something they do not. And they continue to fight for reasons like these. However, there is more to it than simply that." Durendal said.  
>He turned away from the table, facing the mobile suit. "Take for example this machine. The ZGMF-2000 GOUF Ignited, a next-generation aerial mobile suit. This particular machine was rolled out of a military factory only days ago. In a war, missiles are fired, mobile suits and ships are hit and damaged or destroyed. In the meantime, factories continue to make new mobile suits and ships, new missiles and other weapons."<p>

-"Mr. Chairman, what exactly are you saying?" Athrun asked, uncomfortable.

-"Consider for a moment the manufacturing cost of a single mobile suit. If you think about it as a business, no other venture provides that kind of turnover...while simultaneously pulling in enormous profit."  
>The general consternation at Durendal's final statement among the pilots was clearly palpable. Shinn clenched his fist, frowning at the implication.<p>

-"Sir...that's disturbing." He said.

-"It is. Throughout history there have always been those who have urged others to make war, thinking of it in this manner." Durendal continued. "The current situation is no different, I expect. I am certain that if we look in the shadows of this war, we will find Logos is behind it."

-"Logos, sir?" Athrun asked.

-"Yes...after all, they formed the nucleus of Blue Cosmos." Durendal revealed, though Athrun noted he did not explain any further. He also wondered how the Chairman could have this information, or if he was merely speculating. Durendal continued to speak. "As long as we all are dancing to their tune, the PLANTs and the Earth are doomed to never find peace. If at all possible, I would like to change all that...but it is truly the most difficult task imaginable."

Not long afterwards they all left, and Chairman Durendal offered to allow them to spend the night here rather than return to the ship. Yzak said he would return to the ship, but told his pilots to stay and take up the chairman on his offer.  
>-"There's no reason for you to hesitate." Athrun said as Lunamaria and Shinn remained reluctant. "Shinn, Lunamaria - you guys stay here. I'll head back to the ship and..."<p>

-"Excuse me, sir." Rey interrupted. "I'll head back to the ship. As the _Minerva_'s top pilots, you and Shinn deserve this honor. And as a gentleman, it's only proper that I defer to Lunamaria so that she too can stay."

-"ATHRUN!" They suddenly heard a familiar voice.

_'Oh no...'_ Athrun mentally sighed as he recognized the figure running towards them down the hall. Meer ran towards him, bumping into Luna, and threw herself into his arms, much as she had done when they had met in the PLANTs.  
>Yzak raised an eyebrow. He really wanted to say something, but Athrun looked uncomfortable enough already so he refrained - he'd save it for later.<p>

-"Why, it's Lacus Clyne." Durendal said casually, a hint of amusement in his tone. "That was a wonderful performance."

Composing herself, Meer turned to face the Chairman and answered.  
>-"Thank you for your kind words, Mr. Chairman." Then she turned back to Athrun, ignoring the annoyed expression on Lunamaria's face and the apparent puzzlement on the others'. "I heard you were at the hotel, so I rushed here as soon as I could. Were you able to see my concert today?"<p>

-"Uh...yeah."

-"What a coincidence," Durendal said, still sounding slightly amused, "and I just finished telling them to relax and spend the night here. Why don't the two of you go out to dinner, on me?"

-"Really?" Meer said, "That would be wonderful! Let's go and make the reservations, Athrun!"

-"Before you leave however, may I have a moment of your time, Athrun?" Durendal asked. Athrun nodded, and the two stepped out into the garden behind the hotel. Meer followed along, but waited on a bench some distance away, her red Haro bouncing back and forth on the bench next to her.

"It's about the _Archangel_." Durendal began in an undertone. "I'm sure you've heard the news."

-"Yes, I have." Athrun responded. Anticipating the Chairman's next question, he continued "It's been on my mind since it happened, but I have no idea where they could be now, or why they even left Orb. I was thinking of asking you about it."

-"I see. That's unfortunate. You see, I was thinking that if the _Archangel_ and the Freedom really left Orb, then possibly..._she_ might be with them." Athrun knew exactly who _she_ was - Lacus. The real one.

-"I don't think there can be any doubt about it. Kira...the ship wouldn't leave Orb without her." He said firmly.

-"Hmm...Given the present crisis, I was hoping she would return to the PLANTs." Durendal said. "So I've been searching for her...Do you suppose she might have grown tired of us? The way we keep repeating the same mistakes, over and over?"  
>After a moment's pause, Durendal continued. "If by some chance you were to come into contact with that ship, could you let me know?"<p>

-"Yes, sir. If I may, can I ask the same from you, sir?"

-"Of course." Durendal said, and walked away without another word, as Meer ran towards Athrun and swept him off to leave for dinner.


	12. Phase 12: Wandering Eyes

**PHASE 12: Wandering Eyes**

**March 26th, Cosmic Era 75  
>Bandirma<strong>

The morning following the crew's discussion with Chairman Durendal, the Chairman himself left early, boarding a helicopter that would take him to Gibraltar, and from there back to the PLANTs.

Athrun woke from an uneasy sleep, and wondered briefly where he was, as he did not recognize the room. Then he remembered the events of the previous day. After Durendal's departure following their discussion, he and Meer had gone to dinner in one of the more upscale restaurants in Bandirma. The food had been different, but otherwise the evening had played out much like the time they had had dinner together in the PLANTs. Then they had returned to the hotel and he had gone up to his room, where he had gone to bed and fallen asleep immediately.  
>As he pulled back the covers, he glanced to his left and saw that there was someone else in his bed...someone with very long pink hair, and wearing a very short pink nightgown...<p>

With a shocked yell, he tumbled backwards out of bed, landing hard on the floor. The sound woke Meer, who sat up slowly, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

Then, someone knocked at the door.  
>"Good morning, Commander!" Lunamaria's voice came from the other side of the door. "Are you awake yet? I thought...maybe we could go down to the dining room together, sir."<p>

-"Just a second!" Athrun said as he scrambled to put his pants on. Before he could get the door though, Meer had gotten out of bed and was headed towards it.

-"Huh? No...hey, wait!" Athrun said quietly...too late. Meer had opened the door.

"Thank you," she said to Luna, smiling as she spoke, "but please go ahead without us. Athrun and I will be along shortly."  
>Then she closed the door, right in Lunamaria's rather shocked face.<p>

"That was rude. And what's the big idea, anyway?" Athrun said sharply.

-"I didn't mean to be rude. I was just talking to that girl at the door." Meer answered.

-"Never mind that, I meant what are you doing in my room?" Athrun asked.

-"I told the front desk that I was supposed to visit you," she said, "but when I arrived you had fallen asleep." She replied, looking almost disappointed as she said so.

-"I don't really much care how, what I want to know is why?" Athrun asked, his voice rising.

-"Why?" Meer asked, looking puzzled, "Well, isn't it normal for couples who are engaged and haven't seen each other in a long time?"

-"But Lacus would never do something like that." He replied, perhaps more harshly than he should have. Meer looked taken aback for a moment, but then she looked at him with that same puzzled expression again.

-"She wouldn't? But why not?" she asked.

Athrun groaned, exasperated.  
>-"Never mind. Just...could you put on some clothes?" He asked, and then went into the bathroom to finish getting dressed.<p>

Downstairs, Lunamaria had met up with Shinn, and they were talking as they went down to the dining room for breakfast.

-"So the Chairman's gone already?" Shinn asked when Lunamaria mentioned it.

-"Well of course he is - he's a busy person, after all. It's a wonder he even had the time to talk to us yesterday." Lunamaria said shortly.

-"I guess so..." Shinn said.

-"You're pretty lucky, Shinn. Getting commended by the Chairman yesterday, and then getting the whole day off today. Things are just great for you."

-"What's with you?" Shinn asked, surprised at Lunamaria's tone and thinking that she sounded annoyed about something. "It's not like I asked for it. Besides, we've all got today off, remember? The Captain gave us two days' shore leave."  
>Lunamaria opened her mouth to reply, but a pleasant, almost wryly amused voice interrupted the discussion.<p>

-"Good morning you two. You're the youngsters from the _Minerva_, right? Where's that FAITH operative who was with you guys?"

-"Excuse my manners. Good morning to you sir." Lunamaria said stiffly saluting the officer who had spoken. It was the same officer who had met them the previous day and escorted them to the Chairman. Shinn saluted as well. "I believe the Commander is still in his room."

Just then they overheard a voice, and Shinn glanced over his shoulder to notice Athrun, looking visibly uncomfortable. Lacus Clyne was clinging to his arm and talking animatedly to him.  
>-"Ah...never mind. I get the picture, thank you." The officer said. Then he stood and, as the two approached, saluted. "A pleasure to see you this morning, Ms. Lacus."<p>

-"Oh, hello. Good morning." she replied cheerfully.

-"Your show yesterday was quite a success. I'm sure something like that will tremendously help everyone's morale." He continued.

-"And did you enjoy the concert, Mr. Heine?" she asked him eagerly. That was something that Athrun had noticed about Meer: a touch of vanity, perhaps - she always seemed eager to hear what others thought of her, or rather of her performance. _In a way, her entire life is one long performance,_ he thought bitterly.

-"Of course." The officer she had addressed as Heine replied, then turned to Athrun. "There was so much going on yesterday that you and I were never properly introduced. I'm Heine Westenfluss, of the Special Forces. It's a pleasure to meet you, Athrun."

Slightly surprised that Heine knew his name, he nodded, shaking the other man's hand. -"Nice to meet you too. I'm Athrun Zala."

-"Yeah, I know. You're quite the celebrity - although I heard you only recently returned to active duty, you used to be with the Le Creuset Team, right?"

-"Yes, sir." Athrun replied.

-"I was assigned to the Hawkins Team for most of the Great War. Up until just recently, in fact." The name "Hawkins" seemed to Athrun to ring a faint bell, but he couldn't quite put his finger on where he had heard it before. He dismissed the thought, for now.

They were suddenly interrupted by a portly man in a suit, who spoke in a high, nasal voice and asked "Lacus" to follow him in order to discuss the day's schedule.

-"I guess it can't be helped." She pouted, then turned to Athrun. "I'll be seeing you later!"

She left, and Heine sat down, changing the subject. "So, you three plus the blond fellow from yesterday make four, not including Commander Joule himself - you're the _Minerva_'s pilots."

-"That's right." Athrun said. Heine then turned over and looked at each of them in turn - first Athrun himself, then Shinn, and then Lunamaria, saying as he did so "You pilot the Saviour, the Impulse, and you, young lady, and the other fellow both pilot ZAKU Warriors." Turning back to Athrun, he continued, "And you're a member of FAITH - the Captain too."

-"That's right." Athrun replied, wondering what this could be leading up to.

-"Though few in number, you actually have considerable fighting strength...So why is the Chairman assigning me to such a powerful ship?" Heine asked pensively.

-"WHAT?" Shinn and Luna both exclaimed.

-"You'll be joining the _Minerva_, sir?" Athrun asked.

-"Yeah. Once I return to duty that is - I'll be coming by the ship later to officially introduce myself. You know, three FAITH members on one ship...could turn out to be a real pain in the ass." Heine said, wryly. "Anyway, I look forward to working with all of you. The Chairman has such high hopes for this ship - let's try not to disappoint him, shall we?"

-"Yes, sir!" Athrun replied.

A little while later, Athrun stepped outside and saw that Meer was leaving. Against his better judgement he walked over to say good-bye, which she seemed happy about.

"So, I guess you're leaving then?" He asked.

-" Yeah. The tour goes on, I guess." She said cheerfully. "Good-bye Athrun."

-"Bye. Take care of yourself." He saluted briefly, but much to his surprise she leaned in and kissed him.

-"You too." She said quietly. Then she turned around and got into the waiting helicopter, which took off immediately.

Shinn returned briefly to the _Minerva_ where he changed into civilian clothes, and decided he would go into town alone.  
>After wandering around for a while, he rented a motorcycle and took off, riding the bike out of town; like when they were in Orb, he needed time alone to think, and so he rode out along a smaller road that wound around the edge of a cliff that overlooked the sea.<br>As he rode, he thought about everything that had happened, and especially about what Chairman Durendal had said the day before.

After a while, he pulled the bike over and stepped onto a larger rock formation that jutted outward from the cliff face. He took a deep, relaxing breath and closed his eyes, listening to the sea pounding the base of the cliff below, and the gulls as they cried and flew past.  
>Then he heard another sound, softer, more melodious. A woman's voice, humming a slow tune - very different from the infectiously upbeat pop music of the concert at the base. He looked over and saw a very pretty blonde in a two-tone blue dress, dancing along a little farther down the cliff, near the edge.<p>

_'Hey...that's the girl from yesterday.'_ He thought, the memory of the incident still causing him to blush slightly. He smiled, closing his eyes and listening. Then he heard a sudden cry, quickly cut off, and a splash.

_'Did she fall over?'_ He wondered, slightly nervous. He ran over to where he'd last seen her, and looked down over the edge. Sure enough she had fallen in. And worse, she obviously couldn't swim. "Damn it! She can't even swim!" He swore under his breath. Then he removed his jacket, and he dove in.

An excellent swimmer himself, he soon spotted her under the water, sinking fast. He swam towards her, coming up behind her, and grabbed her around the stomach. She struggled to break free, but he held on and pulled her to the surface.  
>She struggled even more as they broke the surface of the water, and actually scratched his face.<p>

"Damn...just calm down!" He said as he caught hold of her again and shifted her so she lay on her back. After a while, she stopped struggling and eventually she calmed down.  
>Carefully leading her along, he headed for shore - which in this case was a narrow culvert at the base of the cliff, where there was a fairly sizable patch of dry rock.<br>They were nearly there when he slipped and they both fell, landing on their knees in the shallow water.

"Are you trying to die, you twit? You were right on the edge, and you can't even swim! Playing around like..." Shinn snapped at her. His words had an effect he certainly hadn't anticipated; her eyes widened, her expression suddenly terrified. She backed away from him, shaking.

-"No...I don't want..to die!" She stammered. Then with a scream she rushed off...right back towards deep water again.

_'Damn it. Me and my big mouth...' _Shinn mentally berated himself.

-"Hey, stop! What in the..." He shouted after her as she walked along, still muttering the same thing over and over again. _'What's the deal, here...?' _Shinn wondered. He tried to stop her from getting any farther out, but she ignored him, still walking along.

-"I'm scared!" She said, "I don't want to die!"

-"No one's going to hurt you!" He said, but she seemed not to hear, and she struggled against him.

-"I'm gonna die! If I get shot I'm gonna die!" She said, hysterically. She elbowed him in the face and he fell back, losing his grip. The sudden movement upset her balance as well and she fell into the water.

_'If she gets shot...this girl...it can't be!'_ Shinn wondered, and he remembered some of the atrocities perpetrated by the Alliance in the region - the slave labor in the Indian Ocean, the torture and killings at Gulnahan, and similar things in countless other places...the decimation of Orb, four years prior...the death of his family.  
>Clearly, something similar had happened to her, he guessed, and it had traumatized her.<br>As she struggled to rise, he stood and waded towards her, pulling her up and into his arms, her head on his shoulder.

"Yeah, I know." He said softly. "You're going to be fine. Don't be scared anymore...you're not going to die. I promise...because I'll protect you." She sobbed as he held her and began to cry, but she calmed down.

"I'm sorry," he apologized, "I'm sorry if I upset you like that. But everything's all right now. You're safe now, okay?"

-"Safe..." she whispered. After a while, the tears stopped too and the two of them headed once more for dry land - such as it was.

"You'll be just fine." Shinn said as she sat on the rock, shivering. The sun was setting, and the temperature had dropped noticeably. "You're completely safe here - I won't let anything happen to you. I promise I'll protect you."

-"Protect...me?" She said as she looked at him.

-"Yeah. So you don't have to worry anymore - you're not going to die, I promise." He reached over and set his hand down on hers. She took his hand, and slowly moved it until it rested against her cheek. Her skin felt incredibly soft and smooth, ever after her near-drowning.

-"Protect me?" She asked again. Shinn nodded.

-"You bet." He said. Then as he looked he saw blood on her ankle. "You must have cut it on the rocks. Does it hurt?" He asked. When she shrugged, he guessed it didn't too much. He pulled his handkerchief out of his pocket and, wringing the seawater from it, used it to bandage the ankle, after cleaning it with a strip torn from his shirt sleeve.

"The question is, now what?" He said as he stood, looking around. Around them the cliffs were sheer and probably fifty to sixty feet high - too high to climb. And she couldn't swim, so that was out of the question. "I bet this is going to get me into a lot of trouble, but there's no choice." Reaching into his shirt, he pulled out a small, grey object tied to the chain with his dog tags, and snapped it in two. The object was an emergency transmitter. Breaking it activated the transmitter, which sent a signal that was sent to the _Minerva_, triggering an alarm on Abby Windsor's console that also displayed the transmitter's coordinates. It was supposed to be used only in the most dire emergencies, but they had no options.  
>She of course was on leave, but Bart Heim, one of the other members of the bridge crew, happened to be on board and saw the message on her screen. He immediately sought out the Captain.<p>

Shinn meanwhile looked around and was glad to see a small, dead tree not too high up the cliff. Better yet, there was a small, shallow cave in which they could take shelter. He tore it down and broke off the longest branches, which he used to set up an impromptu line, on which he hung his shirt to dry. Then he used the rest of the wood to light a fire at the cave entrance, which would both dry out their clothes and keep them warm.  
>The girl saw what he was doing. She stood and, without a word, stripped off her dress. Blushing furiously at first, he tried as hard as he could not to look at her as he took the garment and hung it to dry on the line with his shirt. Then he sat down next to her, facing away from her.<p>

As they sat there, he started to wonder who she was.

"What's your name?" He asked, "Are you from the nearby city?"

-"My name is...Stella. City?...I don't know." she answered. Shinn hesitated for a moment.

-"Well," he continued, "there must be someone who would worry if you were missing. Who are you usually with? What about your father, or your mother?"

-"I'm with Lukas...and Auel. Father? Mother?...I...don't know." Stella said.

-"I see..." Shinn said slowly. "Something awful must have happened...but it's all right now."

-"Because...you'll protect me?" She asked, looking uneasy again. "I won't...die?"

-"That's right. You'll be fine - you won't die, I promise."

At Shinn's words she smiled, and he found himself again thinking, as he had earlier, that she really was beautiful. Then it occurred to him that she had told him her name, but he had not done likewise. "Oh, my name is Shinn. Shinn Asuka."

-"Shinn...Asuka." She said softly, and then she stood and walked over to the crude line on which her dress hung to dry, and fished something out of its pocket, then turned around, facing him. He blushed furiously and turned away, trying not to look at her.

-"Here." She said, sounding a little more cheerful than she had up to this point. In her hand, which she held out in front of him, was a small seashell. It was a beautiful little thing, a pearly pink color.

-"This is...for me?" He asked. When she nodded, he said "Thanks, Stella."

Then he looked at the small shell, and he had an idea. He took it and, very slowly and carefully, slid a fingernail in between the two halves of the little shell, then split it in two. And he handed one back to her. "Here. That way, we both have one." He said. She took the shell in her hand, hesitantly. And then she smiled, and she sat down next to him, resting her head on his shoulder.

It was hours later that Shinn heard the distant, throaty roar of a powerful boat engine. He and Stella had long since put their clothes back on once they had dried, and he guessed he must have fallen asleep, because the sound woke him. He looked down, and Stella was sitting in front of him, sleeping soundly. His arms were around her shoulders, and she held his hand in hers even as she slept. Silently, he woke her and she looked around, surprised and frightened. Then she recognized him, and she relaxed.

He stood, and stepped outside. In the glare of the spotlight he couldn't see who was in the boat, but he recognized the voice when the older man spoke.

"An emergency signal when you're on shore leave? You just can't have a regular day off, can you?"

-"Commander?" Shinn asked, having recognized Athrun's voice.

-"How did you get yourself stranded all the way out here?" Athrun asked. "And who is that?"

Peering over his shoulder, Shinn saw that Stella had stepped out behind him and was looking over at the boat.

-"It's...kind of a long story." Shinn said vaguely. Athrun rolled his eyes, and he piloted the launch - a big rigid-hulled inflatable - close enough for Shinn and the girl to get in. Then he turned around and headed back towards shore.

"This girl fell off the cliff and into the water," Shinn began to explain. "She couldn't swim, so..."

-"So you dove in and rescued her, and ended up stranded in that hole in the wall." Athrun said, his tone half-joking. Though truth be told, the incident reminded him of something vaguely similar happening to him once. "Is she from Bandirma?" he then asked seriously.

-"I'm not sure. But I think she lost her parents in the war. She probably survived something traumatic."

-"I see..." Athrun said. "What's her name?"

-"Stella." Shinn answered.

-"Well, we'll bring her back to base and see if we can't find out more information."

-"Wait! Stop the engine!" Shinn suddenly said. He thought he'd heard something. Athrun cut the engine, and sure enough, distantly Shinn heard someone calling her name. Two people - one young, the other much older. She'd heard too, and she turned around in the boat, facing the sound of the voices.

Athrun nodded, gunned the engine, and adjusted his course. Once the boat was docked the three of them got into a waiting Jeep and drove in the direction in which they'd heard the voices of, Shinn guessed, the two people Stella had talked about, Lukas and Auel.  
>Sure enough, another car going the other direction appeared, coming down from the direction of the cliff where Shinn had seen Stella. He signaled to Athrun, who pulled over and blew the horn.<br>The other car pulled over, and two people got out.

One looked to be about seventeen, with blue hair and an annoyed expression on his face. The other was probably in his late-thirties, possibly early forties. He had black hair, pulled back in a tight ponytail, and a narrow, angular face.

"That's Lukas!" Stella said, and she got out of the Jeep and ran towards the older man.

-"There you are, Stella." He said paternally, though Shinn noticed that in spite of his warm tone, his eyes - narrow and dark - remained cold, fixed on the ZAFT jeep's other two occupants. "Whatever happened to you?" he asked her.

-"She fell into the ocean." Shinn answered. "I happened to be close by. Still, it's a relief we ran into you guys. We were trying to help her, but we don't really know much about her, and weren't sure what we were going to do!"

-"Is that a fact?" The older man, Lukas, answered. "Thank you. I'm sorry to have caused you any trouble."

While Shinn was speaking, Athrun turned his attention on the younger man, who was looking fixedly at him, though he looked away and feigned disinterest when he saw that Athrun had noticed.

"I can't thank you enough," Lukas said. "ZAFT and its soldiers have my gratitude."

-"It was no trouble." Shinn said, and he and Athrun turned back towards the Jeep. As they got in, Stella ran over.

"Shinn. Are you going?" She asked sadly.

-"I'm sorry, but I have to." He said, and she looked crestfallen. "But it's all right now - you're with Lukas and Auel - you'll be fine. Besides, I'm sure we'll see each other again."

-"Okay." She said, looking a little more cheerful.

As the ZAFT jeep pulled away, she stood at the side of the road and watched it move away. In the back seat, Shinn turned back, looking at her.  
>"I'm sorry, Stella! But I meant it...we'll meet again! I'll...I'll come and see you, okay?" He yelled back, and then the car rounded a corner and he couldn't see her anymore.<p>

Stella stood for a while longer, looking down the road at the point where the jeep had disappeared.  
>"Shinn...you said you'd protect me." she whispered sadly, then at Lukas's request got into the car, which pulled away, turning around and moving in the opposite direction.<p>

In the jeep, Shinn turned to look back in the direction the other car had gone, hoping that, as unlikely as it seemed to him, he would see her again...


	13. Phase 13: The Shadows of War

**PHASE 13: The Shadows of War**

**Earth Alliance Suez Base  
>CVN-133S<strong>**_ John Paul Jones_**

Lukas was on his way from his quarters to the bridge when he heard a commotion coming from a room down the hall, which he knew was where Auel and Stella were quartered. Quite distinctly audible was Stella's voice as she yelled.  
>"NO! You can't take it! GET AWAY FROM ME!"<p>

With a puzzled expression, Lukas entered. The room was dimly lit, and the first thing one saw when entering was a sizable bank of computers and other electronic instruments. Three technicians were at the console, while several others including the medical technicians in charge of the Extendeds, Doctors Kinney and Rice, stood near the center of the room. Rice was a hard, deceptively slender man of some thirty-five years, with short brown hair and an expression of deep contempt. Kinney was shorter and a little older. She had blonde hair, and a concerned expression on her face as she looked into the room where four or five other technicians stood clustered around one of two large, elliptical pods, which lay in the center of the room. Each one was closed by a transparent plexiglas lid, and contained a padded mattress. It was in these pods that the Extendeds were maintained when not in combat.

One was closed, holding Auel who already slept. The other was open and held Stella, who was seated, holding a blood-stained handkerchief in her hand as if it was the most precious thing in the world. She looked around at the technicians that stood around her "bed", her expression rather akin to that of a cornered animal. One of the technicians had already had to be taken to the medical bay, his jaw dislocated when she had kicked him in the face after he removed the handkerchief from her ankle and made to discard it.

"What's going on here?" Lukas asked.

-"Who knows? She went ballistic when we took that mangy handkerchief off her ankle to try and check her ankle injury before putting her under." Rice said. Next to him, Kinney was fiddling with something, but looked up resentfully at his tone.

-"So that's what happened." Lukas said when he saw the item in question. He didn't recognize it, so he guessed it had to belong to that ZAFT kid who'd found her. He stepped forward and approached Stella, who looked up at him. "I'm sorry Stella. Don't worry, no one's going to take it from you..." He said as he ran a hand through her hair. Her expression became less fearful, but still looked wary.

-"Really?" She asked softly.

-"Of course." Lukas replied soothingly. "Why would anyone want to take away something so important to you?"

At that moment, Dr. Kinney stepped forward. "Here, Stella. This was in your pocket." She said. In her hand was a small seashell, threaded on a length of black string. Stella relaxed at the sight of the object, and as Lukas took a step back she stepped forward and slipped it around her neck, then tied it. "Now, you get some rest."

Stella looked from Dr. Kinney to Lukas, and she gave a small smile as she lay down.  
>The pod soon closed as well, and after a little while she was asleep.<p>

"You're too soft, Kinney." Rice said spitefully.

-"I know how to handle her." Kinney countered. "She may be a slender girl, Rice, but if you'd tried to take it from her by force she would have broken your neck with her bare hands."

Kinney left soon afterwards to check on their injured colleague. Once she was gone, Lukas turned to the others.

"I get the feeling I've crossed a line, and become a wicked man. Taking important things away from them is what we do best." He mused. Then more seriously, he continued. "For her to be so significantly disturbed, she must have experienced something quite significant..."

-"You're right about that. She came back with a strong impression of something," one of the technicians replied, before adding dismissively, "but whatever it is, it'll soon be gone."

-"These two are fighting machines and nothing else. Their job is to destroy their designated enemy." another one added. "They're better off without something unnecessary like memories or feelings - things that would reduce their efficiency."

-"Yes, I know." Rice replied callously. "Anything these kids are taught, anything they feel...it won't do them any good."

As he stepped out, Lukas spoke again. "All of this because I let them go into town. I want you to pay special attention to their maintenance, especially her. That girl fears dying more than anything else...if she wants to continue living, then she has no choice but to keep destroying her enemies."

**ZAFT Forces Bandirma Base**

Several days had gone by, and the _Minerva_ was finally ready to launch. In the hangar, there was quite a commotion, as it was at full combat capacity for the first time since leaving Armory One, over a month prior. Six gleaming UMF/SSO-3 ASSH amphibious assault mobile suits had been added to the ship's complement, supplementing the two ZAKUs and Athrun's and Shinn's Gundams. Also onboard were two additional new models: One was the orange ZGMF-2000 GOUF Ignited prototype, which it turned out was piloted by Heine Westenfluss. The other was an identical machine, this one piloted two-tone blue - the same paint scheme arbored by Commander Joule's own ZAKU, before its destruction. This second prototype was intended for his use.  
>Vino and Yolant looked up at the two machines, visibly impressed. "Man," said the former, "they just keep rolling out the new models!" Yolant merely nodded in agreement.<p>

"Here's the manual." Aves, the chief mechanic, interrupted as he handed out data disks to all of them, "Make sure you read it thoroughly."

Meanwhile, with his mobile suit onboard Heine himself formally reported to the ship, greeting Yzak on the bridge before heading down to the break room. With the addition of seven new pilots to the ship's roster, the room was rather more crowded than usual. Heine immediately singled out, however, the slender blond-haired pilot in the red uniform whom he'd seen a few days before. Rey stood and saluted.

"Rey Za Burrel, reporting sir."

-"Right, the pilot of the white ZAKU. I'm Heine Westenfluss - pleased to meet you."

Heine then walked into the break room, where he saw Shinn and Luna. Athrun also followed, as did Rey. "I must say, the _Minerva_'s a hell of a ship. Way better than a Nazca class, right?" He added, glancing at Athrun.

-"Yeah, you're right about that." Athrun agreed, remembering the _Vesalius_ from the previous war. It too had been a hell of a ship, but the Minerva was definitely something else.

-"Were you assigned to a Nazca-class previously, Commander Westenfluss?" Luna asked curiously.

-"Call me Heine - I'm not a big fan of formal titles. And yes, I was assigned to the _Montesquieu_ previously. After that, I did a brief stint onboard a Lesseps-class before my assignment here."

-"Commander," Shinn said to Athrun in an undertone, "Is he serious about us calling him..."

-"Commander Westenfluss has seniority over me, Shinn. So do as he says."

-"Call me Heine." the latter said admonishingly, addressing Athrun. "I just don't think it's a good idea to build walls of that nature between pilots. I mean, on the battlefield, us ZAFT pilots are all the same, right? Regardless whether we're FAITH or the color of our uniforms." He nodded to Athrun, in his black uniform with its FAITH insignia on the lapel, or to Shinn, who wore red like himself. "We're nothing like those guys in the Earth Forces who can't seem to fight except in huge groups under orders."

-"That's true." Shinn assented, remembering the Orb and Indian Ocean battles.

-"Well there you have it. You really should've had them do that in the first place, Athrun." Heine said. Athrun nodded, then Heine strode off, Lunamaria and Rey following. Athrun hung back, and so did Shinn.

-"I wish I could be a little more outgoing like that," Athrun said. "It's hard for me, though."

-"Commander..." Shinn started. Athrun smiled.

-"Call me Athrun, okay?"

-"Hey, what are you doing, Athrun?" Heine hailed from the other side of the room. "You're supposed to be showing me around, remember?"

-"Right! Be right there!" Athrun said, and he and Shinn walked quickly towards the rest of the group.

**Earth Alliance Suez Base**  
><strong>CVN-R19 <strong>**_Jeanne d'Arc_**

The _Jeanne d'Arc_ steamed into Suez, docking next to another carrier of the Spengler-class, which its hull designation number identified as CVN-133S, the Atlantic Federation's _John Paul Jones_.

On the bridge, Captain Natarle Badgiruel glanced askance at the presence of that particular ship. Suez was nominally a Eurasian Federation base, however she suspected that its leadership chafed under the policies of President Baum and retained ties to Blue Cosmos. The presence of a carrier reputedly belonging to the Atlantic Federation's 81st Independent Mobile Battalion tended to give credence to those suspicions.

"Well, there's not much to do about that - orders are orders." She said wearily. "I'm just glad Cagalli left the ship before we reached port."

Even worse, she saw a gigantic carrier docked some distance away, which was surrounded by a sizable force of Aegis-class and Kuraokami-class ships - Orb vessels. "So they've roped Orb into this too?" She muttered, shaking her head.

Onboard the _Jones_ meanwhile, The two Extendeds, closely supervised by their handlers, were waking up. Auel was already awake, and as the second pod opened and Stella rose, she was surprised to see she was holding a handkerchief.

"What is this?" She asked quietly. Shrugging, she pocketed the handkerchief and stood, ignoring the twinge from a cut on her ankle beyond wondering where it had come from...

The presence of an Orb fleet at Suez was quickly noticed, and the information soon made its way to Gibraltar, and from there to Bandirma where the _Minerva_ still was docked.

"Damn it. That bastard Seiran is bloody behind this, I know it." Yzak fumed. Athrun nodded, his expression looking worried and apprehensive. Heine looked puzzled.

-"Unato Ema Seiran," Athrun explained, "the Prime Minister of Orb. He and his son Yuna Roma are strong supporters of the Atlantic Federation. I suspect they're taking advantage of the fact that Representative Athha is missing to consolidate their power base and reestablish ties with the Atlantic Federation after she pulled the rug out from under them with that treaty."

-"Ah. Makes sense." Heine replied.

-"We still don't know whether they'll hit Gibraltar first or come here. My money's on here, though. They have to reopen the land route to Suez. Headquarters feels the same, so it looks like we're heading back into battle again." Yzak stated grimly. The other two FAITH officers nodded.

-"Other than the reinforcements from Orb, what kind of battle strength do they have at Suez?" Heine asked.

-"Currently just two carriers and a handful of surface escorts. However, one of them is the_ John Paul Jones_ - the same one we faced in the Indian Ocean."

-"What?" Arthur exclaimed, "The one carrying those machines from Junius Seven?"

-"Yep. It's a bitch, but we'll be facing them again. That's what could make this a bad one. We leave at 0600 tomorrow, take up a position in the Dardanelles and guard the approach into the Sea of Marmara. Dismissed."

The following morning, the _Minerva_ moved out from Bandirma, heading down the coast of the Sea of Marmara and into the Dardanelles channel until it ended in the Aegean.

In the ship's mess, the news that Orb was reinforcing the Alliance had reached the ship's crew. The general reaction was negative, but nobody was more surprised than Shinn.

"What? Orb's...but how could that country?..." He asked Lunamaria, who was sitting next to him as they ate an early breakfast.

-"Yeah, I know. It really is pretty unbelievable." Lunamaria said. "But, they did join the Eurasian Federation so that does make them part of the Earth Forces now. I guess we shouldn't be that surprised."  
>Busy as she was talking, Luna failed to notice Shinn's reaction to her comments. He was frowning, his expression indicating how angry he was at this development.<br>_'Bastards...so much for your so-called ideals.'_ He thought.

Outside Athrun was on the deck, like Shinn preoccupied with what he had learned. He was thinking of what had happened, remembering his last conversation with Kira, the last time he saw Cagalli. He wondered where they were now, and if they knew about the Orb fleet.

"So, you've been in Orb this entire time - since the end of the Great War?"

Heine's voice interrupted his thoughts, and he turned to the older officer as he continued to speak. "I've heard from others it's a wonderful nation."

-"Yes, it certainly is." Athrun agreed.

-"In its own way, this place is beautiful too." Heine said, then continued "You'd rather not fight. Against Orb, I mean."

-"That's true." Athrun responded.

-"All right then. Who would you prefer to fight?" Heine asked, surprising Athrun.

-"It's not like I want to fight someone specifically." Athrun said hesitantly.

-"Yeah, I thought so. Same here. But this is war, and we are soldiers. If you forget that, then you will die." Heine said, suddenly grim. "It sucks, but that's how it is."

-"Right." Athrun assented.

It did not take long for the Orb fleet, along with the two Alliance carrier groups, to arrive at the entrance to the Dardanelles, where the _Minerva_ and its mobile suits were waiting.  
>Yzak took the ship to Condition Red, secretly glad that they had been fully resupplied. This time, they had a card in their hand that they had not had before, though he hoped not to use it.<p>

In the ready room, Athrun was suiting up and preparing for launch, as was Shinn. What caught Athrun's attention was when Shinn, once he was ready, slammed his locked shut with a clenched fist. He followed.

"Hey, Shinn! Something bothering you?"

-"No." Shinn said shortly. "I realize we're fighting Orb, but at this point it's the same thing as if they were the Earth Forces anyway."

-"Cagalli wouldn't...I seriously doubt this would have happened if Cagalli had been there."

-"What are you talking about? that idiot?" Shinn retorted angrily. Changing tack, Athrun turned to face Shinn directly.

-"You left Orb, so why are you so angry about this? The truth is...you really loved Orb, right? That's why you're so angry."

Taken aback by the sudden statement, Shinn did not immediately respond. "You're wrong! That isn't it at all!" He retorted. He then stepped into the hangar and headed to the Impulse, while Athrun went to the Saviour.  
>But Athrun had been right, and whatever Shinn might say, they both knew it.<p>

Soon enough, the Orb fleet launched the first of its mobile suit teams, a mixed force of MBF-M1A/F Astray Flight Types and MVF-M11C Murasames. On the decks of its two Aegis-class escorts were underwater-assault MBF-M1/LC Astray Littoral Combat Types, which also deployed.

"Thermal ID, twenty signals confirmed at one o'clock. Identified as Orb Union Murasames and Astrays...Sonar reports four additional incoming underwater contacts...No match found." Bart Heim reported from his console. The _Minerva_'s bridge was lowered into its protected combat position, and the mobile suits were on standby.

-"Ascend from water surface, turn 10 to port. Launch the Saviour and Impulse." Arthur ordered. "Load launchers one through four with Dispars, six through ten with Parsifals. Activate CIWS, Tristans, and Isoldes. Load Wolframs, tube one and two."

In the hangar, the two GOUF Igniteds and the two ZAKUs waited on standby while the Impulse and the Saviour launched. The Saviour was the first one out, with the Force Impulse close behind.

The two mobile suits evaded the Orb escort ships's initial barrage and engaged directly against the enemy mobile suits. Though equipped with a thruster pack that granted them atmospheric flight capability, the Astrays were hopelessly outmatched by the far faster and more maneuverable Impulse, and in the first few moments of the battle three of the ten mobile suits had gone down.

Meanwhile, the _Minerva_ was engaged by the enemy escort ships, though the three carriers hung far to the rear, out of reach.

Arthur suddenly heard a communication from Yzak. "Arthur, establish a firing axis for the Tannhäuser. Wait until we're clear of the strait, and mow the bastards down!" He ordered.

-"Right." Arthur acknowledged and began preparations, when Bart reported still more mobile suits - an additional forty machines, most of them Astrays, with ten more Murasames.

"Damn it!" Athrun swore as he was engaged, already having difficulty fending off the Murasames already attempting to break past, when he saw the incoming reinforcements. The Murasame, while inferior in firepower and defensive capabilities, was almost fast and agile enough to keep up with the Saviour, and they had the advantage of numbers.

"Firing axis established!" Chen, the weapons officer, reported from his post on the Minerva's bridge.

-"Good. Activate Tannhäuser." Arthur ordered. "Target the enemy escort ships."

-"Activated, targeting enemy ships. Primary weapon bank...contact. Output stable. Releasing safety lock." Chen said, as the barrel of the weapon began to glow with accumulated energy.

The instant before Arthur gave the order to fire, a shot from above pierced the cannon laterally, detonating and destroying the weapon. The resulting conflagration tore through the ship's upper bow, causing severe damage and casualties.

"WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED?" Yzak raged from his GOUF Ignited's cockpit as the damaged ship began to slide toward the surface.

"Tannhäuser destroyed. FCS is down." Bart reported.

Arthur relayed the situation to Yzak, then turned back to the bridge crew. "Put out those fires and get the FCS back online! Damage control crews, stand by." He said, a panicked edge to his voice. "All hands brace for water landing!"

The ship landed hard in the water, smoke pouring from the gaping hole in its bow. Arthur ran a quick check: miraculously, the four frontal launch tubes and their weapons were intact - the heavily-armored bulkhead that separated them from the rest of the bow, including the Tannhäuser, had buckled, but it had held.

"Secondary tubes three and four, load Fafnirs." Yzak ordered. There was silence. The MMI-M382 "Fafnir" had been onboarded as part of the ship's arsenal during their resupply at Bandirma.  
>With the sole exception of the Tannhäuser, this supersonic cruise missile was the heaviest weapon in the ship's arsenal, with a terminal velocity of Mach 3, an operational range of nearly three hundred kilometers, and a 450-kilogram high-explosive warhead capable of tearing even the enormous <em>Takemikazuchi<em> wide open. After a moment, the tubes were loaded.

Meanwhile, the attack had also caught the attention of the ship's mobile suits.  
>"What was that...from above?" Shinn looked up and spotted the attacker. He recognized it immediately - and so did Athrun.<p>

-"The Freedom...Kira!" Athrun exclaimed as the ZGMF-X10A Freedom appeared. Not far behind was the _Archangel_ itself, two additional mobile suits on its decks: The Buster and Aile Strike.

Onboard the _Takemikazuchi_, Colonel Todaka too had recognized the new arrivals.  
>"The <em>Archangel<em>...is Lady Cagalli onboard?" the veteran officer wondered. Apparently, Yuna Roma Seiran was wondering the same thing, and he did not look pleased.

"What are you fools doing? HURRY UP AND ATTACK!" He screamed. "I want you to shoot that accursed ship down!" He ordered.

Reluctantly, Colonel Todaka gave his orders. "Aim missiles, target the _Archangel_...Fire!"  
>The six ships escorting the <em>Takemikazuchi<em> launched their attacks.  
><em>'I'm counting on you, Freedom.'<em> Todaka said silently.  
>His faith was not misplaced. The Freedom moved in front of the ship, deploying its weapons and targeting the incoming projectiles. Only a handful of the missiles made it through, and the <em>Archangel<em>'s own defenses destroyed them all.

Meanwhile underwater, the four Astray Littoral Combat Types had been waiting for a chance to attack their target, and as soon as the _Minerva_ hit the water they began closing in. They were about to launch their attack when a barrage of torpedoes sped into their mist, and the surprise attack destroyed one of the machines as the Minerva's six ASSH underwater assault mobile suits, launched prior to the attack, moved in to engage.

A new-model machine designed to operate in the shallow waters around Orb itself, the Astray LCT was equipped with a scale system, so its speed and maneuverability were significantly higher than that of the ASSH. However, they were outgunned and outnumbered two to one, and their enemies were experienced in underwater combat.  
>Though initially able to hold off the ASSH's attacks, the tide soon turned against the Astrays. Evading the torpedoes from its enemies, one of the Astrays was able to destroy an ASSH by closing into close range and driving its Armor Schneider assault knife - an enlarged version of the knives originally developed for the Strike - into its cockpit, causing the pressure hull to collapse.<br>However, he was struck from behind by one of the remaining ASSH, and at five against two the remaining Astrays were soon defeated as well.

"ASSH Team reporting enemy underwater mobile suits destroyed, sir." Abby reported.

-"Good." Arthur replied. "Although we're still at a serious disadvantage right now. And with our luck, the Alliance ships are going to get involved now too."

Arthur was right. At that moment, the _Jones_ ordered its own mobile suits to prepare to take off, as Lukas left the bridge and headed down to board the Chaos.  
>Reluctantly, Natarle did the same onboard the <em>Jeanne d'Arc<em>, and the ship's Daggers, led by Sven's Windam IWSP, took off.

"Excellent. Now that it's wounded, this is our chance - take out the _Minerva_!" Lukas ordered.

Underwater, the Abyss shot at full speed towards the ship.

"Let me at it...I've been waiting for this chance." He said eagerly. Then he came under attack from the five ASSH mobile suits. "Damn. Not these bastards again..." He muttered as he evaded their attack, then countered.

Meanwhile, the _Minerva_ launched its two GOUF Igniteds, followed by Rey's Tempest ZAKU Warrior. Lunamaria launched as well, with her customary Gunner Wizard equipped.

"Damn it." Athrun swore as he found himself surrounded by Alliance mobile suits, attacking and destroying them before they could reach the _Minerva_. At the same time, he was trying to establish radio contact with the Freedom, but he was not having much success - there was too much interference.

Enraged at the sudden development - first the Orb fleet, then the _Archangel_ attacking the Minerva - Shinn was relentless, obliterating Daggers and Astrays alike. Suddenly he found himself engaging against a Murasame, whose significantly better speed and maneuverability allowed it to dodge Shinn's shot and close into melée range.

Blocking the Murasame's saber strike with his shield, he shoved the throttles to their stops and the Impulse shot forward, the shield slamming into the Murasame and knocking its saber loose. Thrown off-balance and stripped of his saber, the Murasame pilot steadied his machine and drew the beam rifle from its waist hardpoint, only to go down as Shinn fired a salvo that tore off both its arms before piercing the cockpit.

"What are you doing?" Yuna yelled frantically from the _Takemikazuchi_'s bridge. "Hurry up and give the order to attack them! All our mobile suits, NOW!"

-"Sir..." Todaka began.

-"We have to sink the _Minerva_! Our reputation is at stake here...and while you're at it, sink the _Archangel_ as well!" Yuna retorted. "You can trace all the problems of our nation back to that ship - it's been a thorn in our side forever; so get rid of it too."

Meanwhile the Gaia stood on the prow of the _Jones_ as it steamed closer to the battle, while Lukas closed in on the _Minerva_ and Auel was engaged by its ASSH team underwater.

As it approached, she drew a bead on the Saviour and fired the Gaia's beam rifle at the red aerial mobile suit. Athrun dodged easily, but did not counterattack - he was too busy engaging the mix of Alliance Daggers and Orb Astrays that at that moment were trying to attack the _Minerva_.

However, their odds were about to improve somewhat; Roughly half of the Orb mobile suits diverted, turning their attack on the _Archangel_. From the deck, the Buster fired its weapons, bringing them down if they drew too near, while the Freedom used its overwhelming advantage in speed and firepower to quite literally disarm any mobile suits that came within range, severing their arms and main cameras, either with the Freedom's beam saber or with a shot from the beam rifle.

Heine's GOUF Ignited drew from within its shield the "Carnwennan" beam sword that was its primary melee weapon as he closed in on an attacking group of Orb Murasames. This was a more compact physical sword loosely similar to the Sword Impulse's "Excalibur" anti-ship beam swords, but designed for anti-MS use and equipped with a beam on each edge of the sword, giving it greater flexibility. The GOUF Ignited was nearly the Murasame's equal in maneuverability, but Heine was far more skilled; dodging or blocking with the GOUF's shield any attacks that came his way, he sliced apart one Murasame, then narrowly dodged an attack from another, which he shot down with the GOUF Ignited's rapid-fire "Draupnir" four-barreled forearm-mounted beam gun.

Carrying a beam rifle, Yzak likewise deployed, and found himself engaged in battle against the Windam IWSP. Despite the other's superior firepower, the GOUF Ignited was slightly faster, and the two were evenly matched as Yzak dodged a barrage from its shield-mounted gatling gun. Targeting the weapon with the beam rifle, he fired and the Windam dodged.

However, even with the addition of Heine, Yzak and Rey, they were too few to effectively defend the badly-damaged _Minerva_, and the enemy mobile suits began to slip through. From the bridge, Arthur ordered a volley of missiles fired at the enemy mobile suits, while its CIWS also threw up a hail of bullets that shredded most of the missiles fired by the enemy units. One Murasame succeeded in slipping past the _Minerva_'s defenses and as it closed in, aimed its rifle right at the bridge.  
>"Huh? There's nothing..." He hesitated as he saw that where the ship's bridge should have been, there was nothing but bare metal behind the high windows.<br>The second's hesitation allowed Lunamaria to fire a shot from the Gunner ZAKU's "Orthros" beam cannon that obliterated the Murasame.

"That was close..." She sighed wearily.

Underwater, the battle continued as the five ZAFT ASSH mobile suits battled against the Abyss.  
>"Damn it...you bastards. TAKE THIS!" Auel yelled as he fired a volley of torpedoes at the nearest mobile suit, following it up with a volley from the Abyss's shell-firing cannons.<br>The ASSH avoided the torpedoes, but the cannonfire severed its arms.

Auel followed up with a volley from the Abyss's six phonon masers that finished off the crippled ASSH and took out a second one, leaving only three of the mobile suits, which counterattacked with a volley of torpedoes from their back-mounted launchers, forcing him to switch to submersible mode and evade.

"Evade! Ten to port!" Arthur ordered as the Alliance and Orb ships fired a volley of missiles at the _Minerva_. The ship veered to the left, presenting the maximum number of CIWS turrets to the incoming missiles, which were shredded by the turrets's sustained fire. A second volley however slipped past, and the ship shuddered under the impact of the missiles as they hit.

"Counterattack! Tristans, FIRE!" Arthur ordered, and the three double-barreled beam cannons fired, the attack destroying one of the Orb fleet's Kuraokami-class escort vessels.

A force of Orb mobile suits closed in along with the Chaos and several Daggers, which were met by Rey's ZAKU and the second GOUF Ignited. The two of them immediately counterattacked, the GOUF Ignited's pilot using his beam rifle to target them before they had a chance to attack the _Minerva, _Rey opening up with the Tempest ZAKU's beam gatling guns.

The Chaos deployed its gunbarrels to counterattack, but an alarm bell rang out in its cockpit as the Saviour descended on the mobile armor, firing its heavy beam cannons at the released weapon pods in a surprise attack that destroyed two of them.

"Damn it. That red bastard again." Lukas commented as he turned the remaining Gunbarrels on the new arrival, evading a followup attack from the beam cannons as he fired a missile barrage at the Saviour.  
>Switching to mobile suit mode, Athrun fired a volley from the Saviour's cannons across the missiles' flight path, using his CIWS to shoot down those missiles that he missed.<p>

Several of the ships, along with roughly half of the enemy mobile suits, were engaging the _Archangel_, and several Murasames fired their four-shot missile launchers at the ship, while others targeted the Freedom with beam rifles and cannons.

"Evade!" Murrue ordered. "Lower bow 15 and descend."

The ship dipped and decreased altitude, sliding below the missiles' trajectories and shooting them down with the _Archangel_'s 75mm CIWS.

Kira meanwhile brought the Freedom's shield to bear, blocking the attacks before counterattacking with the beam rifle, firing a glancing blow that sheared off the rifle from the attacking Murasame's side, damaging it and forcing it to retreat.

As he fought, he felt himself enter that state of exponentially enhanced awareness in which his already impressive skills were magnified - and he launched a counterattack with the Freedom's full firepower, disarming several Orb Astrays and Alliance Daggers.

Meanwhile on the _Archangel_'s deck, the Buster fired a volley at the incoming Astrays that shot down two of them, while the Strike Rouge, reconfigured with the original's colors and piloted by Canard Pars, used the beam rifle to shoot down a Jet Dagger that had slipped through.

"Tch...this thing's different from the Hyperion." He muttered, bemoaning the Strike's comparative lack of firepower. "Still, pretty impressive maneuverability." He rose from the deck, drawing a beam saber and blocked an attack from an enemy Dagger before countering, neatly piercing the Dagger's cockpit before falling back, reflecting with some amusement that the Strike had been Kira's mobile suit originally - albeit this particular machine had belonged to Cagalli.

"Change course and head over to the _Minerva_." Murrue ordered, "Keep an eye on Orb and the Earth Forces."

-"Yes ma'am!" Neumann, at the helm, responded.

The _Minerva_ was on the move, putting as much distance as possible between them and the enemy ships while continuing to fend off the attacking mobile suits. The two GOUF Igniteds were engaging against a remaining force that consisted primarily of Alliance Dagger Ls, with Yzak having switched to his beam sword after losing his beam rifle.

The Windam IWSP attacked again, forcing Yzak to dodge its cannonfire. He moved in closer and attacked the Windam at close range, forcing it to draw its beam saber to parry the attack, then fired the four-barreled beam gun on his forearm at point-blank range. The Windam backpedaled to avoid the attack, but the volley severed its left arm, taking with it the shield and its powerful gatling gun.

Then another Dagger - also painted black, this one equipped with an Aile Striker and carrying a pair of arm-mounted rocket anchors in addition to its standard weapons - moved in, firing a short-range beam carbine at Yzak's GOUF.

It was Heine who intervened, blocking the volley before countering with another of the GOUF's weapons - a metal segmented whip, which wrapped itself around the forearm of the Dagger. The whip delivered an intense electrical shock, which destroyed the Dagger's arm, taking the carbine with it.

Below, the Gaia spotted the orange mobile suit and fired its two back-mounted beam cannons up at the GOUF Ignited as Heine retracted the whip.

"Oh yeah?" Heine said as he dodged the attack, then attacked the Gaia with the whip, delivering two successive strikes that caused a massive electrical discharge, the current incapacitating for a brief moment the Gaia and its pilot. Leaping back and transforming to mobile suit mode, Stella raised the beam rifle, but in the time it took to aim it at the GOUF, Heine had once again attacked, the whip wrapping itself around the weapon's long barrel.

"What?" Stella exclaimed, surprised.

Heine smirked. "This is no ZAKU, pal." He said as he triggered the whip's electrical discharge. In the instant before it detonated, Stella released the rifle and brought the shield to bear in front of her, protecting the Gaia from the attack as well as from the followup shots from the GOUF's beam machineguns.

"Bastard." She spat as she drew the Gaia's beam saber and charged. Heine narrowly avoided the attack, then took flight, moving out of the Gaia's strike range and moving to back up Shinn and Rey, who were engaged against enemy mobile suits and badly outnumbered.

"Comm...Heine!" Shinn exclaimed as he saw the GOUF closing in. An enemy Murasame attacked him at that point and he opened fire with the beam rifle. The Murasame dodged the attack, only to be shredded by a followup strike from Rey using the Tempest ZAKU's beam gatling guns.

Meanwhile, the attack continued, and the Orb and Alliance forces' superior numbers continued to pose a problem as still more Daggers closed in on the _Minerva. _  
>"Four mobile suits off <em>Minerva's<em> starboard bow!" came the report from the _Archangel_'s CIC.

-"Can you fire in between them?" Murrue asked.

-"Yes ma'am!"

-"Then do it! Aim Gottfried Two...and don't hit those machines...FIRE!" she ordered.

The Archangel's double-barreled "Gottfried" beam cannon fired, the beam passing through the formation of four Murasames and forcing them to scatter, only narrowly missing the ship itself.

"What the hell do they think they're doing now? They destroy our cannon, killing who knows how many of my crew in the process, and now they're backing us up?" Yzak glowered as he saw this from his GOUF Ignited. "I'm starting to think these morons are trying to stop this battle by shooting at everybody!"

Meanwhile the Freedom was continuing its attacks, every shot disabling but never destroying an Orb or Alliance mobile suit before it was able to attack. Having shaken off or destroyed the Alliance mobile suits they were engaging, Shinn turned his attention to the Freedom.

"This guy...who the hell is he?" He asked. He recognized the Freedom as the very same mobile suit that, in Orb years earlier, had fired the attack that killed his family. He raised his beam rifle and took aim at the machine's cockpit, but before he could fire the Freedom shot past the Impulse, severing the arm that held its beam rifle in a single saber slash as he swept by.

"DAMN!" Shinn swore angrily.

The Freedom then turned its attention to the Abyss, moving a few meters below the surface in submersible mode as it continued to evade the ASSH's attacks. Deploying the Freedom's railguns, he fired both weapons twice, pummeling the Abyss. The short range and high speed of the large-caliber slugs, though reduced by their short travel through the water, partially overwhelmed the Abyss's Phase-Shift Armor, damaging its thrusters.

"What the?" Auel swore. With the Abyss's mobility reduced as a result of the damage, he could no longer hope to hold off the three ASSH, and immediately retreated. Seeing this, the ASSH team fell back towards the _Minerva_, taking up defensive positions in front of the ship.

In the Saviour's cockpit, Athrun was still trying to establish communication with Kira, to no avail.  
>"Kira...why are you doing this?" Athrun wondered. "Damn..."<p>

At that moment the Gaia leaped, wing blades ignited and firing its beam guns at the Freedom. Kira blocked the attack with the Freedom's shield then countered, slicing off the Gaia's front legs. Thrown off-balance, Stella screamed as the Gaia crashed into the water below.

"Attacking all of us...what the hell makes you so special?" Heine yelled. Targeting the Freedom, he fired the GOUF Ignited's "Draupnir" beam guns. Evading the attack, Kira accelerated and severed the arm neatly at the elbow as he slipped past the GOUF. Then he saw the Saviour closing in, and turned his attention to it. In the Saviour's cockpit, Athrun was still trying to establish communication with Kira, to no avail.

"Son of a..." Heine mumbled and moved in to attack the Freedom again.  
>However below, the Gaia stood, in mobile suit mode. In its cockpit, angry at what had happened to her mobile suit and, to a point, terrified that this guy might kill her, Stella looked up at the Freedom, which had its back turned.<p>

"Nobody does that to me..." She fumed as she pushed the throttles to their stops and took the Gaia into a powered jump towards the Freedom. Midair she switched to quadruped mode, deployed the wing beam blades, and ignited the array of thrusters built into her wings, nearly doubling her speed as she shot up towards the Freedom.

Moving in to attack himself, Heine drifted into her path without realizing it, until alarms rang in his cockpit. Instinctively he ignited the GOUF's thrusters and the mobile suit shot upwards, but not quite fast enough.  
>The Gaia's blade cut the GOUF Ignited in half just below the waist, and the lower half of the machine exploded as it shot past.<p>

Kira spotted the Gaia coming, and he delivered a hard kick that sent the black mobile suit reeling back. The shock knocked Stella back and she lost consciousness. Incapable of flight and with its pilot unconscious, the Gaia was seconds away from a fatal collision when the Chaos swooped past, catching the machine in its huge leg-mounted claws, and retreated towards the fleet.

"HEINE!" Athrun yelled, fearing that his friend - for so he thought of him - was dead.

Then he saw the tiny, bright orange escape craft falling from the wreckage. Though normally capable of limited movement, the escape pod - the same type as that used by the ZAKU - had been damaged by the Gaia's attack and was falling towards the water below.

"SHINN! Retrieve it!" Athrun ordered frantically.

-"Right." Shinn acknowledged as he shot towards the damaged escape pod and, ejecting the Impulse's shield, caught it using his remaining arm.

-"Shinn, take Heine and get back to the Minerva." Rey said as he pulled up. "Athrun and I will deal with this guy."

Reluctantly, Shinn agreed. He hated to leave in the middle of the battle, but he was in no condition to fight. However...  
>His mind made up, he shot towards the ship.<p>

"Minerva, I have the GOUF Ignited's escape pod. Prepare to receive it, and send out a replacement Chest Flyer!" Shinn asked. The port and central catapults opened and Shinn dropped off the escape pod in the former, before taking off and ejecting the damaged Chest Flyer. A replacement shot from the central catapult, and Shinn docked with it and the Force Silhouette.

Meanwhile, Rey turned his attention to the Freedom, taking aim and firing with the back-mounted beam gatlings and his beam rifle.  
>Kira dodged the attack and moved towards the ZAKU, intending to sever the arm with the beam saber. But Rey saw the maneuver coming, and drawing the beam tomahawk from its compartment inside the ZAKU's shield, he parried the saber and counterattacked with the ZAKU's shoulder-mounted railgun, firing it into the Freedom's head at point-blank range.<p>

For any normal mobile suit, such a blow would have destroyed the head entirely. As it was, the supersonic slug was mostly stopped by the Freedom's Phase-Shift Armor. However, the impact caused minor internal damage to the head, hindering its movement and damaging the numerous sensors that were stored inside it.

Kira fell back, stowing the beam saber and drawing the beam rifle, then turned to counterattack, deploying the Freedom's wing-mounted beam cannons and hip-mounted railguns, then fired. Rey moved to evade the attack, but one shot went through.

Caused in part by the ZAKU's movement to defend and in part by the Freedom's aim being very slightly altered as a result of the damage it had sustained, the attack was off from its pilot's intended target, and a shot that should have neatly clipped off the ZAKU's left arm instead struck squarely on its upper torso.

As he was closing in, intent on returning into combat after replacing the damaged Chest Flyer, Shinn saw the Freedom's attack hit the ZAKU's torso, and the white mobile suit exploded.

"NO! REY!" He yelled as the ZAKU's remains fell into the water. With a scream of rage, he fired at the Freedom from below. Kira dodged the attack, only to find himself facing the Saviour Gundam, as Athrun closed in. He fired the beam rifle at the red mobile suit, which blocked the attack. In the following seconds, Kira had switched from the rifle to the beam sabers and, compensating for the slight error in targeting, attacked the red mobile suit, aiming to slice off its arm.

As the Freedom closed in, Athrun had drawn his own beam saber and parried the attack.  
>"Why, Kira?" Athrun wondered, "What the hell do you think you're doing here?"<p>

An alarm suddenly rang in the Freedom's cockpit, warning Kira that the other Gundam was closing in fast and firing at the Freedom from behind. He evaded the attack and the Saviour also backed away, the shots passing harmlessly by. Turning to face the new opponent, Kira kept one eye on the Saviour as he targeted the approaching Impulse with the Freedom's "Balaena" wing beam cannons and fired. The Impulse blocked the attack with its shield, drawing a beam saber as it approached.

The Freedom drew its own beam saber and was preparing to engage when a salvo from the Saviour's powerful "Amfortas" plasma beam cannons passed in between the two, forcing both to break off.

"Shinn, back off!" Athrun ordered as he moved in, saber drawn and continuing to engage. At the same time, he turned on the Saviour's radio again, intending to attempt one more time to get through to Kira, in spite of the heavy interference.

At that moment however, the Freedom attacked again, this time from long range with its wing-mounted beam cannons and rifle. Athrun attempted to dodge the attack, and he was partially successful, narrowly avoiding a shot to the right arm that, had it connected, would have blasted it off, taking with it the heavy cannon mounted just behind. However the attack sheared off the Saviour's left forearm as well as its leg. With his machine damaged, Athrun began to pull back towards the Minerva, and Shinn fired a suppressive volley at the Freedom from the beam rifle as he covered Athrun's retreat.

At the same moment, the _John Paul Jones_ sent up a retreat flare. The Alliance mobile suits, led by the black Windam IWSP and the Chaos, withdrew, and the remaining Orb forces did likewise. Kira turned back towards the _Archangel_ as the catapults opened. He entered, soon followed by the Strike, then the Buster. Its mobile suits safe within, the ship submerged, disappearing once again.

Yzak ordered the ship to begin searching for the remains of the ZAKU. It was, after all, equipped with an escape pod, and there was a distinct possibility that Rey might have bailed out. Using the ship's sensors and supplemented by the ASSH searching from underwater, they scoured the area around which the ZAKU had fallen.

Yzak meanwhile contacted the ZAFT base at Bandirma, appraising them of the situation and requesting assistance. He stressed that they had a pilot shot down, but who might have survived. Yzak also advised that in the condition they were, they had no choice but to divert to the nearby port city of Çanakkale for repairs. The base commander said they would send out ships to search for the missing pilot, as well as personnel and supplies to assist in the repairs.  
>Two hours later when the ships arrived, they still had found no trace of the ZAKU's wreckage, and Yzak was forced to conclude that Rey had been unable to eject, and the bulk of the group began to leave the area.<p>

As the _Minerva_ sailed towards Çanakkale, the ship's pilots stood on the deck except Yzak, who had remained on the bridge. Athrun looked confused and angered at his best friend's actions during the battle. Lunamaria wept for the death of Rey, someone she had been closer to than anyone else. As for Shinn, tears were also flowing down his face after his best friend's death, and he was shaking with barely-suppressed rage.

Night fell as the ship steamed on, and the others headed back in until Shinn was the last one still outside. As he looked out at the ocean in the direction the _Archangel_ had vanished, he finally spoke, though there was nobody outside to hear him.

"The next time we meet...I'm going to destroy him." He swore. Then, wiping the tears from his eyes, he turned and headed back into the ship.


	14. Phase 14: Diverging Views

**PHASE 14: Diverging Views**

**Çanakkale Seaport**  
><strong>LHM-BB01 <strong>**_Minerva_**

The _Minerva_ put into the coastal city of Çanakkale, at the southern end of the Dardanelles, in the small hours of the morning. After sleeping for only a few hours, Yzak went up to the bridge. Abby updated him on their situation. They could repair the ship and their mobile suits with the assistance from Bandirma, but nothing could be done to replace the ones they had lost. Yzak asked her to contact Gibraltar to make them aware of the situation, and then headed outside, where maintenance crew were examining the twisted remains of the Tannhäuser. He found Aves supervising.  
>Not far away, body bags were laid out.<p>

"The crew who were killed when the cannon exploded?" He asked. Aves nodded.

-"Twelve of them." The chief mechanic replied. "The attack hit just as the charge on the Tannhäuser reached 100%, only a few seconds before the cannon fired. As a result, we took significant damage to the bow - this is going to take at least a week to repair. Twenty additional crew were wounded in the attack as well"

-"Bandirma's provided us with the parts we'll need for repairs for the ship and the mobile suits we still have, but nothing can be done about replacing the ones we've lost." Yzak stated. "All the same, I'd appreciate you move as quickly as possible on this."

-"Of course, sir." Aves nodded in assent, and Yzak stepped away, seething. A total of sixteen dead - the twelve crew, plus Rey and three of the ASSH pilots - and so far, twenty-seven wounded including Heine. Significant damage to the hull as a result of enemy attack, not including the total destruction of the Tannhäuser...they were in bad shape.

Meanwhile, a green-clad ZAFT soldier was loading several crates into a large Jeep. As he finished and closed the trunk, he turned to the group standing nearby: Shinn, Lunamaria, and Athrun. The crates contained Rey's personal effects.  
>The soldier saluted.<p>

"Don't worry," he said, "I'll take care to deliver Rey Za Burrel's personal effects myself."

The others saluted, and the soldier got into the car and drove off.

The three of them turned back towards the ship. Suddenly Shinn stopped.

"This was their fault." He said. "If they hadn't jumped into the battle like that, Heine wouldn't have been so badly injured. And Rey..."

-"Shinn..." Lunamaria said hesitantly, but Shinn turned around, which brought him face-to-face with Athrun.

-"I mean, what the hell were they even doing there in the first place?" He asked, his voice rising. "What, did they think they could force us to stop fighting? What a bunch of idiots!" Then he stormed off. Lunamaria followed, leaving Athrun standing alone on the walkway.

He hadn't known Rey Za Burrel well. The younger man was too taciturn, too quiet. But since joining the _Minerva_ he'd come to think of him as - not a friend, but a comrade. In spite of the extreme brevity of their acquaintance, he felt similarly towards Heine, a man he actually looked up to. And yet the anger he felt - not at Kira, nor anyone else, but at his own weakness, his failure to prevent what had happened to both of them...It was all too familiar.

He glanced out towards the dock, where he saw the rows of body bags.

_'Thirteen dead...No, more than that. It's just like with Nichol...all because I was weak.'_ he thought, and slammed his fist into the railing.

He had to find a way to talk to Kira, to find out just what was going through his old friend's head.  
>A few minutes later, he was in Yzak's quarters, where he made his request.<p>

"You really think you can find that ship?" Yzak asked, looking skeptical.

-"Yeah. I don't think they'll be very far, especially with those Orb ships still so near. You know pretty well that in the War I fought alongside the _Archangel_ at the Second Battle of Jachin Due."

-"Yeah, I know. And the guy piloting the Freedom is a friend of yours, right?" Yzak retorted, remembering - vaguely - something Dearka had mentioned once.

-"That's right. I know him well, and the others too - that's the problem. I know them so well, but I just can't understand why they would do something like this."

-"Well I certainly agree that I can't figure out what the hell they're doing." Yzak commented.

-"I think...I think that, with an Orb fleet siding with the Earth Forces, what they were trying to do was try to get the Orb ships to stop fighting and back off. Return to Orb."

-"Trying to stop the fighting by shooting everybody else. Now there's a dumbass idea." Yzak said flatly, looking irritated. Athrun could understand why. Yzak's words echoed Shinn's earlier, and if he was honest with himself, Athrun had to admit that wasn't entirely wrong.

-"You're not wrong, at that." Athrun replied. "But I can't help but think there had to have been a better way - somehow, a way to accomplish their goal without so many lives being sacrificed...I wonder if maybe there's something about this situation they're not aware of."

Yzak looked at Athrun and scoffed. Athrun had always been like this - in their younger days, Yzak had dismissed it as weakness or stupidity. But no, that wasn't it - Athrun was just idealistic.

"I'm sure Headquarters is going to want us to take action on this - in which case I think I have to try and talk to them, to work out some kind of solution." Athrun said.

-"And is that your judgement as a FAITH operative, Athrun?" Yzak asked.

-"It is." Athrun replied firmly.

-"Then I can't really stop you, can I?" Yzak replied rhetorically. Being both members of FAITH, both he and Athrun had, essentially, equal authority. Despite Yzak's superior rank, he did not have the authority to order Athrun to stop, if that was what he wanted to do. In this instance, this did not bother him as much as it normally would though. "Truth is, I agree that the entire battle was unnecessary. And I'm kind of curious myself. You have 48 hours to see if you can find them. Obviously you can't take the Saviour, in the shape it's in - get a Jeep from the base and go with that."

-"Thanks." Athrun said, saluting as he left.

-"What an idiot." Yzak commented to the empty room once the door closed.

It was several hours later that Athrun finally found a solid lead. He'd been checking likely points to begin his search on a map on the Jeep's integrated monitor, and was driving down towards the next one when he spotted a pretty brunette he recognized from the old days of the Three Ship Alliance, at the end of the Bloody Valentine War. He stopped the car.

"Miriallia!" He hailed. The girl stopped and turned as he got out of the car, removing his sunglasses as he did so. "Miriallia Haww."

-"Athrun...Zala?" Miriallia asked as she recognized him. Formerly in charge of the _Archangel_'s CIC, she had left the military after the end of the war, and now worked as a freelance photographer, mostly for various news outlets. She did not know Athrun Zala very well, though she had briefly dated his old friend, Dearka Elsman.

-"I need your help with something." Athrun said as Miriallia approached. Hesitantly, she got in his car, which she recognized as a model of jeep commonly used by ZAFT on Earth, and they drove to a small café on the docks, where Athrun started to explain the situation.

"I see..." Miriallia said as he finished speaking. "So, when the war began you didn't stay in Orb - you went back to ZAFT."

-"That's...a slight oversimplification, but basically that's what happened." Athrun replied, which slightly puzzled Miriallia. "But right now, I want to talk about the _Archangel_."

_'So, that's what he wanted...'_ Miriallia thought. She thought it made sense he would ask about them, given what had happened.

"I knew they had left Orb," Athrun continued, "but why in the world did it end up here?...When they interfered, things got a little..."

-"A little messy?" Mir completed.

-"You could say that. But how did you know?"

-"I know all about it - I saw the whole thing from beginning to end." She answered, withdrawing from her purse a small stack of photographs she had taken of the battle as it unfolded. She slid them across the table to Athrun, who looked through them, a troubled expression on his face. He recognized photos of Yzak's GOUF, Rey's ZAKU, and Shinn's and his own Gundams, as well as the Alliance and Orb mobile suits and ships, including the Freedom.

-"We...a lot of crewmembers on the _Minerva_ died because of them." He said.

-"What do you want to accomplish by searching for the _Archangel_?" Miriallia asked him.

-"I need to meet with them - I have to talk to them." He answered.

-"Even though you're a member of ZAFT again?" She asked, her expression suspicious.

-"That's irrelevant." He said somewhat more sharply than he'd intended. More calmly, he continued. "I just want to talk. That's all."

Miriallia hesitated for a few moments before answering.

-"All right, it's possible to arrange it. I can put you in contact with them. As long as it's just you."

-"Thank you." Athrun said.

-"It's my country, but the truth is, I haven't been back to Orb in a long time so I don't know a lot about what's happening there. Still, I can't imagine anybody being too happy about this situation - especially Kira. I'll see what I can do. I'll call you tomorrow." She said as she stood, retrieving and putting away her photographs. Athrun gave her a phone number where she could reach him. Then they parted ways, and he got back into his car and drove back to a hotel where he'd taken a room for the night.

And he waited, unaware of the fact that he was being watched.  
>In a smaller room in a building across the street, where there was an unimpeded view of Athrun's window, Lunamaria Hawke watched him carefully through a pair of binoculars. She wasn't sure what he was doing out here or why, but she intended to find out.<p>

On the _Archangel_ meanwhile, the situation remained uncertain. They had not gone very far, but were submerged just offshore in submerged ruins, where the ship was difficult to detect. The Buster and the Strike, along with the Freedom and a single Murasame, were in the hangar. Inside the ship, the door to Kira's quarters slid noiselessly open, and Canard Pars entered. The pink Haro rolling forlornly along the floor beeped noisily as he walked in and greeted him. A little green mechanical bird also acknowledged his entrance, but did not otherwise budge from its perch on Kira's shoulder.

"Kira?" He asked, sounding concerned. His brother turned to him. He was pale and, Canard thought, looked ill. But worse than that, his eyes were red, and that told him that he'd been crying. And he knew why.  
>As the two looked at each other, Kira found himself thinking of that day two years before, when the Eurasian Federation test pilot turned mercenary had first come into their life. They had been living in Orb, he and Lacus. It had been at the memorial when he had introduced himself as Canard Pars, and Lacus had invited him to the small wood cabin by the shore in which they lived together with Reverend Malchio. And he had told them his story: Like Kira, he was a test subject of Ulen Hibiki's so-called "Ultimate Coordinator" project.<br>Eventually, he had found himself in the Eurasian Federation, where his inherent abilities had led to him being trained as a soldier, then as a pilot for Eurasia's experimental mobile suits. He had deserted, taking his mobile suit with him, and become a mercenary.

It had been Lacus who had first accepted him, and offered to let him remain with them. And eventually, so he had, as much for her as for his "brother". Whether they were in truth related by blood or not, he did not know. And it didn't really matter to her, nor to him. And after a while, Kira too had accepted that. That had been perhaps the most important thing for Canard, who had been alone all his life to that point.

"Oh, hey Canard." Kira said. "Something bothering you?"

-"Yeah - you are. You've been cooped up in here since yesterday." Canard started. "Listen, I can't even begin to imagine how you're feeling right now. For something like that to happen to you again..." Kira looked up at his brother, mildly surprised. "Murrue told me about what happened during the last war - at Jachin; that girl..."

-"Her name was Flay. Flay Allster." Kira said. "And she died because I..."

-"Stop. Right there. I know we haven't known each other very long, but I hate to see you like this. What happened wasn't your fault." Canard said, trying his best to ease Kira out of the guilt he felt over Lacus's murder, compounded, he knew by the similarity in circumstances to what he'd been told had happened to Flay Allster. "If anything, it was mine. I should've realized there was a risk much faster."

-"It's just...I can't believe she's gone..." Kira said quietly.

-"I know, brother. But I can't help but think that to see you like this... You're not alone, Kira. And I don't think she would have wanted you to bear this alone."

Kira's grief was, in a way, understandable - he had loved Lacus more than anything, and to lose her the way he had was...Internally, Canard was darkly amused at this situation - him, trying to comfort a man who, once, he had wanted to kill with his own hands, simply because of the circumstances of their births. _The world is a strange place..._he thought.

Later, Kira and Canard, along with Andy and Murrue, were all on the ship's bridge, discussing the situation. Also present was Juri Wu Nien, once one of the original test pilots of the first-generation M1 Astray, who now piloted the Buster.

"So, what should our course of action from now on?" Murrue asked.

-"Well," Andy started, "I'd say we were able to make our intentions clear in that battle yesterday."

-"Were we? I guess you're right..." Murrue answered.

-"The problem is though," Canard said, "that it's put us squarely in ZAFT's crosshairs; they know we're out here now."

-"That's true," Andy agreed, "And chances are they're gonna start focusing on us again - things could get rough for us."

And with only four mobile suits, a prolonged battle could be a problem. In particular if it's up against those new ZAFT machines - especially that Strike knockoff or the red variable type."

There was an uncomfortable pause. Kira pondered the two machines in question, but did not voice his opinion that there had been something strangely familiar about the movement and attack patterns of at least one of those mobile suits.

-"I'm not sure though..." Juri started hesitantly. "If we did the right thing - interfering in that battle."

-"I think we did." Kira said firmly. "In situations like this, we have to decide, and then act on that decision - it's the only way to really achieve anything worth it."

-"The youngster's got a point." Andy agreed, and Murrue nodded her assent as well.  
>Privately, they both thought that sounded like something Lacus would have said. And they were glad to see that while he visibly still grieved, he no longer seemed as consumed by it as he had been.<br>Still, Murrue knew better than anyone the pain such loss caused, and she doubted that it would ever really fade; For her at least, it hadn't.

Their discussion was interrupted by Chandra, who was seated at his place monitoring the ship's communications, when an encrypted signal came in, intercepted by the sensor buoy that was floating above the ship and transmitted down the line to his console.

"Uh, Captain? Incoming transmission." He reported, then read the decoded transmission. "I saw an Angel at the Dardanelles. I'd like to see it again. The Red Knight is also looking for him. Please respond. Miriallia."

-"Miriallia?" Murrue asked, recognizing the name.

-"Who's the Red Knight?" Juri asked. The rest of the message was obvious - Miriallia had seen the battle, and was trying to contact them. Additionally, someone else was looking for them.

-"Athrun." Kira said, absolutely certain that it had to be.

-"Hmm...I think the youngster's right." Andy concurred. "Red does seem to be a color that Athrun is partial to."

-"I saw an Angel at the Dardanelles...Miriallia must have been there." Murrue stated, showing that she had apparently come to the same conclusion.

-"Well, she is working as a freelance news photographer." Neumann, the helmsman, commented. "Her being there isn't necessarily that unusual. And as for Athrun..."

-"If Miriallia saw him, then he's back from the PLANTs." Andy spoke again. "So, what'll we do?" As he spoke, he turned to Kira, watching him for a reaction.

-"Of course, this could be a trap, although the message is a little too clever for that, I think." Canard spoke next. Naturally suspicious, he was wary of the transmission, although it had been relayed to them through a reliable source, and one they'd used before. Murrue shook her head.

-"I don't think so. I doubt Miriallia would betray us." she said.

-"Maybe not willingly. Although with a little investigating, it would not be hard to find her connection to the _Archangel_, and from there it's not unreasonable to assume she could contact us." Canard replied. Then he turned to his brother, "So what do we do?"

-"Let's meet them." Kira said firmly after a moment. "If Athrun really is back, then he can tell us what's happening in the PLANTs. But it's too dangerous for the Archangel to expose itself. I'll go alone."

Andy nodded, but Murrue still looked concerned.

"It's all right." Kira said reassuringly. "Don't worry about it - I'll be fine."

-"Sure you will." Canard assented. "But you're not going alone. I'm going too - if it is a trap, then at least I can watch your back." His tone brooked absolutely no denial, and after a moment's hesitation, Kira nodded.

It was nearing sunset on the following day that Athrun finally heard from Miriallia, when she called him at the number he'd given her. The message was brief - just a time and a place. As soon as he hung up the phone he checked his watch, and saw that he had just enough time to get there.  
>He left the room, paying his stay as he did so - he did not intend to return, but would head straight back to the ship once he had spoken to Kira.<br>He got into the Jeep and drove off. Behind him, far enough to not be noticed, Lunamaria followed him.

Their destination was a small, out-of-the-way ruin, on a cliff overlooking the sea. As Athrun was leaving, Kira and Canard were already at the site. Kira, who had come in the Freedom, left his mobile suit in a broad culvert formed by erosion at the base of the cliff, where it would be difficult to spot except from straight on, out to sea. Then he climbed up to the top of the cliff. He had dropped Canard off before concealing the Freedom, and the long-haired Coordinator was concealed in the ruins, armed with a high-powered rifle. The irony of this was not lost on either man, but they ignored it. Canard would remain hidden, intervening only if things went south, allowing Kira enough time to get back to the Freedom.

Miriallia arrived soon afterwards.

"Kira!" She hailed as she ran towards him. "You know, I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it was actually the Freedom flying around out there. Though I did hear about how you kidnapped the bride and then hightailed it out of Orb. Where's Cagalli now? I figured she would be here."

-"She...didn't stay onboard. She's probably back in Orb by now." Kira answered.

-"Oh. Okay." Miriallia said lightly, but then her expression turned serious. "Listen, there's something I need to tell you about Athrun. I couldn't tell you in the message because I had to be careful about what I wrote."

-"What is it?" Kira asked, his expression worried. Secretly he was glad Canard had come along.

-"He's rejoined the ZAFT forces. He's onboard the _Minerva_ now."

-"Rejoined ZAFT? Then that machine..." Kira suddenly thought of the red machine he had fought in the Dardanelles. The familiarity of its movements made sense now - Athrun had been the pilot.

They heard the deep-throated rumble of a car engine, and looked up. A ZAFT military jeep stopped on the road above, and a familiar figure stepped out, then walked slowly towards them. He stopped a few paces from them, and the two old friends looked at each other.

"Kira. It's been some time." Athrun said. Up close, Athrun thought Kira looked pale, drawn; he knew that his best friend was ill - he had been ill ever since the end of the war, when in the second battle of Jachin Due the Freedom had been caught in GENESIS's last, misfired beam. But he could tell there was something else as well. What it was he couldn't fathom.

-"Athrun." Kira acknowledged, his tone guarded. "So. You've rejoined ZAFT. Why?"

-"Because at the time, I thought it was the best thing to do. For me, and for the nation of Orb."

-"So, you fought in that battle the other day."

-"That's right, I was there. I saw you, I tried to contact you, but I couldn't get through." Athrun said. Then, his tone of voice rising, he continued. "I want to know why you did something so damn stupid. Do you have any idea how many deaths you caused?"

-"Stupid? Maybe...but the enemy ZAFT was about to fight was an Orb fleet. We wanted to stop that."

-"And did you really think the Orb fleet would stop on the say-so of a criminal who abducted their head of state? Speaking of which, did you even think, before you pulled that bonehead move, that you would be leaving Orb in the hands of slime like the Seirans?"

-"Cagalli said the same thing." Kira said slowly. "But at the time, I thought it was the best thing to do."

-"And you were wrong. Think about it - who do you think took advantage of Cagalli's absence to send an Orb fleet to reinforce the Alliance? And where is Cagalli now?"

-"She returned to Orb." Kira answered, a hostile edge creeping into his voice.

-"Good." Athrun replied, relieved. "At least one of you is thinking clearly."

-"You've told us that you've gone and joined ZAFT again." Kira started. "So what's the next step? You were looking for us...why?"

-"Because I was trying to stop you from doing something like that again!" Athrun replied. "Any way you look at it, even in light of the Junius Seven incident, the Alliance are the ones that are to blame for this fiasco. And the PLANTs are still making every effort to bring this foolishness to an end! All that you're doing like this is adding to the confusion."

-"Really? Are you sure about that?" Kira asked, his tone hostile. "Do the PLANTs...does Chairman Durendal really want to end this war and bring peace to the world?"

-"I'm sure you've heard him speak. You've seen how hard he's working at ending this war."

-"And what about that false Lacus Clyne he's been using up in the PLANTs?" Kira asked coldly. "What's the story with that?"

-"That's..." Athrun started to say, but Kira interrupted, his tone openly hostile.

-"Or maybe you can tell me how killing the real Lacus fits into Durendal's plans for peace?"

-"What?" Athrun retorted, shocked at the question. "What are you talking about?"

-"Just that. Not long before we left Orb, a group of Coordinators infiltrated Orb using ZAFT mobile suits - one of them practically a brand-new model. They destroyed the mansion, and they shot Lacus."  
>The news of his ex-fiancée's death hit Athrun like a hammer blow. Certainly, their engagement had been no more than a matter of political convenience, an agreement between their respective fathers. But she had been a kind and gentle person, and he had loved her in a way, as one might a very dear friend or a sibling. Now, to learn like this that she had been killed was horrifying. And now he understood what he had only guessed at before. It was grief that was eating away at Kira, grief over the loss. Grief, and anger.<p>

"They murdered Lacus. And that's why I decided to pilot the Freedom again." Kira continued. "Who could possibly want to have her killed? And why? Until I have a clear answer to those questions, I'm not trusting the PLANTs."

A few moments' tense silence followed. Athrun had no answer for Kira, and his words suddenly caused him to look back on his interactions with the Chairman in a different light. Could Chairman Durendal really have ordered Lacus's murder? It didn't seem possible. But still...

-"Of course, you're right. That someone could murder Lacus is absolutely outrageous." Athrun began slowly. "However, to say that you don't trust the PLANTs because of it...wouldn't you say you're jumping to conclusions, Kira? Even in the PLANTs, there are people with wildly different viewpoints. Like the ones who dropped Junius Seven, remember?"

-"Athrun..."

-"Remember what I told you when we were in Orb. Now think about it - doesn't it make more sense that a handful of people acting on their own and known to follow the ideals of a genocidal monster would assassinate the one person who is most responsible for that man's death? I would have thought that would have been obvious to you, Kira! Or are you going to suggest that it was the PLANTs who attacked the refugee camp at Bandar-Abbas too?"

-"No." Kira said. "What you're saying is possible..."

-"The Chairman is fully aware of how much influence Lacus has even now in the PLANTs. If he knew where she was, do you really think he would have resorted to recruiting a fake?" Athrun asked. Kira did not reply, and after a while Athrun continued. "In any case, I'll look into this when I get back to the ship. You guys should head back to Orb. Cagalli is going to need your help."

-"So, you're not coming back with us."

-"I know Cagalli. If she has her way, if Orb remains the same kind of country it was in the past, then your path and mine are the same."

-"So what you're saying is you're going to be with ZAFT from now on, and you're going to keep fighting the Alliance." Kira said flatly.

-"I'd rather not have to fight. You know that better than almost anyone." Athrun replied "But I am a soldier now. And until this war is over, it can't be helped."

-"So if it comes to it, you'll fight Orb again, like you did the other day?" Kira asked.

-"I don't want to, and if I can I'll avoid it. But in that battle I had no choice!" Athrun retorted, his tone rising again. "And don't forget why Cagalli wasn't there to stop that fleet from being sent in the first place! That one is your fault, Kira. Not mine!"

The sudden anger in Athrun's tone surprised Kira, who hesitated for a moment.  
>-"I understand what you're saying. But even with the way things are now, I don't want you to fight Orb. And not just Orb, either. Because Athrun, what is lost in pointless battle...it's gone, and will never return."<p>

-"Like the pilot you killed, Kira?" Athrun retorted harshly. "Like the twelve men who lost their lives when you attacked the _Minerva_? You sanctimonious hypocrite, do you really think you've got all the answers? You have no right to lecture me about pointless battles after what you did."

-"I know. And I am sick and tired of it." Kira answered. "I don't want to kill anymore. And I will not let others kill."

-"And you really think intervening the way you did in the Dardanelles is going to end it?" Athrun replied. "You killed sixteen people and wounded close to thirty others on the _Minerva _alone. And you really think that indiscriminately attacking both sides like that will somehow end the fighting?"  
>Kira was taken aback for a moment, as Athrun had unwittingly reminded him of something he himself had once said. <em>'Just fighting won't end the war. I kind of doubt it.'<em> But things had changed since then.

"If you really mean what you're saying - that you're sick of fighting - then that's all the more reason for all of you to return to Orb." Athrun continued. "Do you understand? Because once you're on the battlefield, it's too late to change anything."

Athrun knew, deep down, that nothing else could be said. He turned around, and started walking back towards his car. As he got in and drove off, he caught a glimpse, in his rear-view mirror, of a tall silhouette, lanky and long-haired and carrying what he recognized as a high-powered rifle, which appeared and moved towards Kira and Mir. And he knew that their entire meeting had been carefully observed. He had no doubt that, had things turned sour, the man would have killed him.

But above, hidden in an outcropping of trees from which she had monitored the exchange, Lunamaria sat, shocked at what she had heard. She had carried with her powerful eavesdropping equipment that had captured and recorded the whole conversation, and she had heard every word. She still could not believe it, but she packed up her equipment in her car and drove off..

When Athrun returned to the _Minerva_, he made his way to his quarters, where he immediately changed and went to bed.  
>But as sleep eluded him, he found himself thinking about the conversation he had had with Kira.<p>

_'Lacus dead...a new model. If they infiltrated Orb, that has to mean amphibious mobile suits. So that would be an ASSH. But where the hell would a handful of terrorists get their hands on one of those?' _He thought about the conversation he'd had with Durendal in Bandirma. If what Kira said was true, Lacus was already dead when Durendal asked him about her.  
>Did he know at the time? Had he been lying to him, trying to find out how much he knew?<br>Athrun wasn't sure...but regardless, there was something more to this war than he'd first suspected. He'd have to try to find out what.

His thoughts turned to Kira himself, and his actions since Lacus's death. None of it made any sense.  
>"Kira...why would you abduct Cagalli like that? Didn't you realize what would happen?" He wondered. Any fool should have realized the repercussions of such an act. Then he remembered what Lunamaria had told him when he'd arrived on Earth, about the proposed wedding with Yuna Roma Seiran. He guessed that was probably what'd set Kira off.<br>"Still...you'd think he'd know his own twin sister better. No way she'd ever marry that buffoon." Athrun muttered.

The encounter had not ended well, and he had a feeling that before long, when they met again, it would be on the battlefield. And then...  
>He shook his head, preferring not to think about it, and hoping that before it happened Cagalli, somehow, could get a handle on the situation and get the <em>Takemikazuchi<em> home.

Meanwhile, Yzak was in his office reviewing the data they'd gathered during the previous battle as well as a report on the progress to the ship's repairs, when there was a knock on the door.

"Excuse me, sir." He heard from outside. It was Lunamaria, and he guessed what it was she was coming to talk to him about.

-"Come in." he said. Lunamaria entered. "This is about your last assignment?"

-"Yes, sir." Lunamaria responded, and she handed him a file folder, which contained the results of her assignment, including an audio recording, taken with a long-range parabolic microphone and portable recording equipment. Yzak took the folder and flipped through it, recognizing Kira and that girl Dearka had briefly dated in '72. He couldn't remember her name. Lunamaria, looking concerned, continued. "With your permission, I had a question I would like to ask you, sir."

-"Well, I did ask you to basically spy on him. I guess it's only natural." Yzak said, putting down the folder. "Okay, shoot."

-"It's no secret that Athrun Zala left ZAFT in the final stages of the previous War to join with the _Archangel_ - which had likewise deserted the Alliance. And that together with them he fought against both sides to end the war."

-"Yeah, that's right. He's made no attempt to hide it either. What's your point?" Yzak replied.

-"However, judging from his reenlistment and the fact he was made a member of FAITH, it would seem that Chairman Durendal has forgiven his past actions. So was this assignment ordered because there are still some doubts about his loyalty to the PLANTs? All of us have followed his orders because he's a member of FAITH, but..."

At that point, Yzak interrupted.  
>-"Listen, I've known Athrun for years." he said. "You haven't, so I can see how you'd think that. But your objective in this mission wasn't Athrun - it was the <em>Archangel<em>."

Lunamaria looked taken aback by the comment - she hadn't considered it that way. Yzak continued to explain. "Acquiring information on that ship, given its recent actions, is of paramount importance. And that is the reason for the order you received. I for one have no doubts as to Athrun's loyalty - the man is definitely no spy, he's not clever or devious enough. That clear things up for you?"

-"Yes sir, thank you." Lunamaria said, visibly relieved.

-"This conversation is not to go beyond this room." Yzak ordered sharply. "And once you leave here, I want you to forget everything you heard on that mission. Understood?"

Lunamaria hesitated for a second as she thought of what she'd heard - especially about Lacus Clyne. If it was true that the girl they'd seen was a fake, and the real Lacus was dead...then what was the point of such duplicity?

"Something on your mind, Lunamaria?" Yzak asked, looking at her closely.

-"No, sir. my orders are quite clear. Now, if you'll excuse me." She saluted, then turned and left.

Once Lunamaria left, Yzak himself opened the file and reviewed the data Lunamaria had gathered. To say that he was shocked to learn of Lacus's death at the hands of Coordinators would be an understatement, and he found himself wondering whether the Chairman knew. It seemed unlikely that he wouldn't, but then again it could also have been the work of rogue elements like the pro-Zala team that had dropped Junius Seven.

He contacted Headquarters and asked to speak to the Chairman personally.  
>"Commander Joule," said Durendal once he came on the line. The transmission was of poor quality, so Yzak briefly summarized what he had learned.<p>

"I see." Durendal said. "I would like to see the full report. Encrypt the file and have it delivered to Bandirma. A courier will relay it directly to me from there. You should keep an encrypted copy yourself, and under lock and key."

-"Yes, sir."

-"Thank you. Is there anything else, Commander?" Durendal asked.

-"No, sir, that is all." Yzak replied. "But this was of such importance that I felt it needed to be communicated to you directly."

-"You did well. I will be in touch with you if there is anything else." Durendal said, and the transmission ended.

A matter of hours later, the heavily-encrypted report was on its way to the PLANTs, where it was delivered to National Defense Committee Chairwoman Ezalia Joule. Chairman Durendal himself arrived not long afterwards, and she gave the file to him.  
>He sat down and, after decrypting the heavily-encoded file, viewed the data it contained, pondering the repercussions of this unexpected development.<p> 


	15. Phase 15: The Place of Sin

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** Okay, so the first half of the original Chapter 15 is still the same. The second half I went ahead and removed, because as amusing as it was it was kind of pointless. So this sort of combines the previous version's Chapters 15 and 16.

* * *

><p><strong>PHASE 15: The Place of Sin<strong>

**Orb Union  
>Government Headquarters<strong>

Cagalli sat in her office, looking angry. Standing across from her was Prime Minister Unato Ema Seiran, looking confidently at her.

"As I was saying, I understand your being concerned about our fleet." The Prime Minister was saying.

-"Concerned isn't the word for it, Unato. You saw the report same as I did - and frankly, that such a thing happened is unacceptable." She interrupted..

Unato knew she wasn't talking about the _Archangel_, but rather about the fact that the Orb ships had, along with two Alliance carriers, attacked the _Minerva_. "I'm a little puzzled at the presence of an Atlantic Federation carrier with our fleet, if what you told me about the Eurasian Federation having requested our assistance is the truth." She continued.

-"Well, I honestly am not sure either. It's possible that..." Seiran began, but Cagalli cut him off.

-"I'm not interested in your excuses." She said, her temper rising. "I've been in touch with Vice-President Marshall, and he has told me his nation sent no such request. Now, I want you to contact our fleet and order them back, immediately."

-"I understand, Representative. And we've been trying, but unfortunately we haven't had much success - with the distances involved, it's very difficult to reach the fleet. But we'll do our best." He said confidently.

-"Thank you. I expect to hear from you as soon as you've reached them."  
>Seiran bowed, and left. The instant the door closed, she picked up a glass paperweight on her desk and hurled it across the room, where it shattered as it hit the wall.<p>

Soon afterward, Rondo Mina Sahaku entered.

-"Mina, I need your help with something." Cagally said. "Unato Ema is stonewalling; He's told me they're unable to reach the Second Fleet, but I suspect he may be lying. I need you to try and reach them - without going through Military HQ directly."

-"It is possible. I may need some time, though." Mina replied respectfully.

-"Do your best. Please. I'm concerned that if the Alliance leads them to attack ZAFT again, they may be destroyed."

-"Colonel Todaka is the best we have. It would be a sore blow to lose him, but I think we needn't worry. Still, I will do what I can."

-"Thank you. Please let me know as soon as you've been able to reach them." She said gratefully. Mina swept from the room, and Cagalli slumped in her chair, exhausted. As she sat there, she found herself thinking of Athrun, somewhere in the PLANTs - unless he had returned to Earth?  
>Then she wondered what Kira and the <em>Archangel<em> were up to.

**Çanakkale Seaport  
>LHM-BB01 <strong>**_Minerva_**

Nearly a week had passed since the _Minerva_ had arrived at Çanakkale, and repairs were continuing on the badly damaged vessel. Thanks to the assistance from the port's sizable facilities, in addition to the supplies and personnel brought in from nearby Bandirma, the repairs to the ship itself were nearing completion, and work was begun as well on repairing the mobile suits. Nonetheless, with the loss of the GOUF Ignited as well as the ZAKU and the death of Rey, their fighting strength was sorely diminished.

Shinn was on the observation deck, looking out past the port at the city beyond and wondering how much longer they would be here.  
>There had been no sign of the <em>Archangel<em> since its disappearance following the battle, although intelligence said that the Orb ships and the Alliance carriers that had been with them were docked at Izmir a few hundred kilometers to the south, so he guessed that the _Archangel_ probably remained nearby.

The thought of that ship and what it had done angered Shinn, and he supposed that, in the event the Alliance and Orb fleets attacked again, they would continue to intervene. And if they did, the Freedom would be there too. When that happened, he was determined to take down the mobile suit responsible for Rey's death.

"You're out here a lot." A voice suddenly said from behind him. Shinn turned around and saw Athrun, who had stepped out onto the deck as well.

-"I was just thinking."

-"About the battle the other day?" Athrun asked, and Shinn nodded. "Rey was a good friend of yours."

-"I've known him for years - ever since the Academy. I'm still having trouble believing that he's gone."

-"I know how you feel. In the last war, a very close friend of mine was killed in battle like that." He said, remembering Nichol, who like Rey had been killed in battle against the _Archangel_. Then there was Miguel, too. He still remembered the rage he had felt when Nichol had died, and he suspected that Shinn might be feeling much the same he had then.

-"But why? Why the hell did he have to die? And what the hell were they even doing there in the first place?" Shinn asked angrily.

-"The Orb fleet. Their objective was to try and force the Orb ships to retreat, get them to return to Orb." Athrun replied. "Of course, it's their fault the Orb fleet was even placed in that situation in the first place." He added bitterly as he thought of his conversation with Kira only a few days before.

-"That's just stupid." Shinn snapped. "And now because of them..." He trailed off, angrily clenching his fist. He suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder.

-"I know you're angry, Shinn. And believe me, I understand how you feel." Athrun said. "But revenge is not the answer. Trust me when I tell you that no matter how angry you are, if you let that dictate your actions...eventually, you'll do something you'll regret."

Shinn shook Athrun off, glaring at him.  
>-"How would you know?" He retorted.<p>

-"Because the same thing happened to me." Athrun said shortly. "After Nichol died, I felt just like you do now. I was angry at the one who killed him, but mostly I was angry at myself - because I felt it was my weakness that had led to his death. More than anything, I wanted revenge. I allowed myself to get so consumed in my anger that I wanted to destroy the one responsible, no matter what the cost. It nearly destroyed me. And I don't want the same thing to happen to you."

-"Athrun..." Shinn said. It was the first time he had really addressed the older man directly by name. He looked at him, surprised at what he heard.

-"But I learned that killing someone for revenge doesn't solve anything. It only makes things worse." Athrun added. There was a few moments' uncomfortable silence, as Shinn pondered what Athrun had told him, and how closely it mirrored his own feelings. But it didn't change anything. Not really.

"Now come on, let's head inside." Athrun said, and turned towards the door. Shinn hesitated a few moments, then followed him.

The two men went down to the ship's medical bay, where they found Heine, still bedridden.  
>"Oh hey, Athrun! And Shinn too." He said jovially. He winced as he pulled himself up to a sitting position. "I really wish they'd let me out of here; but they're saying I need to stay in here for a few more days."<p>

-"Well, you were pretty badly injured." Athrun said. "How do you feel?"

-"Physically, I'm fine except for a broken leg and a couple of cracked ribs." Heine answered, then his expression turned serious as he addressed Shinn.

-"Lunamaria told me what happened. You okay?"

-"I'm fine." Shinn said vaguely.

-"You're a terrible liar, Shinn. Of course you're not "fine" - you're so angry it's written all over your face." Heine said, before addressing Athrun. "Don't suppose there's any idea where those guys went, is there?"

-"Nothing. They're probably still close by, but there's no indication of where." He said slowly, carefully choosing his words.

-"Oh well. Hopefully they won't turn up again." Heine said. At that moment, the ship's PA blared.

-"Athrun Zala, Shinn Asuka, please report to the Captain's office immediately."

-"Seems the Captain's looking for you two. Better get going!" Heine said. The two pilots nodded, then left.  
>When Athrun and Shinn arrived Yzak's cabin, they found him at his desk. Yzak was going through a file, which he set down when they arrived.<p>

-"Good. You're both here. I need to send you two out on a reconnaissance deployment."

-"A recon mission? What do you want to send us out on such a lame job for?" Shinn asked, frowning. Athrun was about to say something, but Yzak beat him to it.

-"Zip it, you insubordinate little punk." the _Minerva_'s captain snapped. "First, this is an order straight from Headquarters. Second, there's nothing "lame" about it." Shinn did not respond, but looked resentfully at Yzak, who continued.

"We've received some pretty solid intel from local residents about some kind of Alliance research facility in the middle of nowhere not far from here." He showed them the facility's location on a map. "There's not much movement now, but it is a facility that is of significant size, and in the past the locals have seen a lot of heavy activity in that area - vehicles, including mobile suits, coming and going from there. We don't know what the hell it is, but it is extremely important that you find out. You head out at first light tomorrow morning."

-"Right." Athrun acknowledged. Shinn said nothing, but nodded sullenly.

-"Good. Athrun, the Saviour's repairs aren't complete, so you'll be taking a GOUF Ignited. I expect you both to do your best. Dismissed."

The two saluted and turned to leave the office. Before they left, Yzak spoke again, addressing Shinn.  
>"Oh, and Shinn? Talk to me like that again and I'll throw you in the brig." Yzak concluded, glowering at the younger pilot.<p>

Shinn apologized and he and Athrun left the office. Once they were gone, Yzak turned his attention back to the file he'd been reviewing. It was the report of Lunamaria's following of Athrun, and what she had reported corresponded with what Athrun himself had told him, the morning after returning to the ship. He closed the file and encrypted it, then slid the disk into a file drawer in his desk, which he locked. Then he pocketed the key and headed up to the bridge.

The following morning the Force Impulse Gundam launched from the _Minerva_, closely followed by a GOUF Ignited. Athrun had taken the time to familiarize himself with the GOUF's controls and its capabilities, though on a simple recon mission he did not expect any combat. Still, this was deep in Alliance territory, and in a region moreover where there was significant unrest. He thought it prudent to be ready for anything, which is why he was launching with the GOUF Ignited's beam rifle and a shell-firing aerial gunlauncher, which were both stored on hardpoints on the GOUF's waist.

Their target was quite a distance from Çannakkale, so they arrived as the sun was beginning to set.  
>Both mobile suits landed just outside the facility, and Shinn and Athrun disembarked. Both were armed with a pistol, in case of an unpleasant encounter. However, as they entered the facility it appeared to be deserted.<p>

"What...the...hell?" Athrun asked, his eyes wide with shock and disgust as he opened a door into one of the parts of the facility and found banks of computers, behind which were row after row of enormous glass cylinders, sealed off and containing some kind of liquid, in which human bodies were floating. The entire place stank of rotting flesh.

-"What is this place?" Shinn asked as he followed, looking around with a horrified expression on his face.

-"We have to report this to the _Minerva_." Athrun said after tearing himself away from the grisly sight. "This place is abandoned, but it might be rigged. Come on." And the two left the room, heading back to their mobile suits.

"Right." Yzak said when he heard Athrun's report. "The repairs on the _Minerva_ are mostly finished. We'll take off as soon as possible. Hold until we arrive."

Within twenty minutes, the ship left port and took off. They circled around the city itself and headed inland towards the lab.  
>At the same time, additional reinforcements including an Explosives Ordinance Disposal team and several groups of armed ground troops headed towards the lab over land. The entire group travelled overnight, arriving at the facility in the dark.<br>The _Minerva_ landed outside the facility near its mobile suits, and the ground forces and EOD team moved in, thoroughly searching the entire facility. They found that the entire facility had been rigged to explode, with numerous charges laid throughout the complex. The bombs were methodically disarmed, while the ZAFT ground forces swept through each floor one by one, making sure the entire facility was clear. In addition to explosives, they were searching for any unusual chemical or biological agents as well.

Meanwhile, Yzak ordered Shinn and Athrun to head to medical for a complete checkup. Predictably, Shinn protested.  
>"Why? There's nothing wrong with us." He said.<br>Yzak looked about ready to punch him, but Athrun intervened.

-"The Captain's right, Shinn. You might feel fine, but all the same it's better to be sure. Come on."

"Hmm...nothing yet. No sign of any unusual viruses or gasses, but we haven't ruled out everything." The doctor commented as he checked them both out. "Frankly, I think it was careless of the Captain to send the two of you into a place like that by yourselves."

-"We checked it out pretty thoroughly before going in." Shinn protested, but the doctor ignored him and continued with his work.

-"Well, it looks like you both check out." The doctor said once he was finished. "There doesn't appear to be anything wrong with either of you." Shinn gave Athrun an I-told-you-so look, and the older man shrugged. They left and headed back towards the facility, where Yzak was receiving a report on the status of the search.

"The EOD Team reports all explosive devices disarmed and removed, sir. The interior is clear, no sign of chemical or biological abnormalities."

-"I see. Thank you." Yzak said, as he turned toward the facility, wondering what atrocities had been perpetrated here...

**Earth Alliance Naval Base**  
><strong>Izmir<strong>

Sven Cal Bayan and Mudie Holcroft were in a bar on the premises of the naval base of Izmir, which belonged to the Eurasian Federation - albeit of course, this particular base was supported _sub rosa _by the Atlantic Federation, being commanded by officers who chafed under Baum's moderate policies and longed for the days when Blue Cosmos had held sway over the government.

None of which mattered to either pilot. They glanced up at the screen, which was reporting on the latest battles between the PLANTs and the Alliance, both on Earth and in space, as well as the ongoing unrest in the region.

They were currently discussing the battle that had taken place a few days prior. Sven was preoccupied in particular by some of the machines ZAFT had fielded against them, especially that new model aerial-type.

"It seems that ZAFT intends for this war to continue, judging by their rolling out another new model." He commented. "In spite of Durendal's claims otherwise."

-"So what?" Mudie commented callously. "That's fine by me. It's like my teacher used to say, anyway: The only good Coordinator..."

-"Is a dead Coordinator." A voice interrupted. Sven and Mudie turned towards the entrance where they saw an officer in a black uniform, his rank insignia identifying him as a Colonel in the Alliance military. The black uniform meant Phantom Pain. Sven looked appraisingly at the newcomer - tall and gaunt, with dark skin and high, prominent cheekbones, black hair tied back. He recognized Lukas O'Donnell, originally of the Eurasian Federation, a veteran of a number of campaigns against ZAFT during the previous war. Apparently, he was the teacher Mudie so often spoke of.

She had recognized him too, and greeted him with a small smile, saluting him. Sven saluted as well.  
>"At ease." O'Donnell said. "You'll be Major Sven Cal Bayan, then?"<p>

-"Yes, sir." Sven answered.

-"Well, as you know, the _Jeanne d'Arc_ was recalled to its home port of Cherbourg, and is leaving tonight. You two have been reassigned to the _Jones_, under my command."

-"Yes, sir." Sven said impassively. Mudie acknowledged the order, pleasantly surprised at the news that henceforth she would serve under her former teacher again. The three of them remained in the bar for some time catching up and discussing the current situation, then headed back to the _Jones_, where Sven and Mudie settled into their new quarters.

Meanwhile, the repairs were ongoing, especially to the damaged Orb mobile suits, but also the machines onboard the _Jones_. After returning, Lukas headed down to the hangar to keep an eye on the ongoing repairs. Stella was standing next to and slightly behind him, as he stood facing the Gaia. A little farther down, Auel was arguing with the two technicians who were trying to calibrate the Abyss after its repairs.

"Hmm...we never imagined all three of our machines would come back sustaining such damage - especially the Abyss." Lukas commented.

-"I know." replied the officer who was in charge of the repairs. "But we might be pushing our luck by trying to repair here instead of pulling back to Suez."

-"I see your point. However, it can't be helped." Lukas replied. "If they were damaged to the point they could no longer function, then we'd have a good reason to return. But even the damage to the Abyss isn't that severe. And Stella and Auel are still healthy." He concluded, looking at Stella, who nodded, smiling.

At that moment, a crewman walked up to them and addressed Lukas directly.  
>"Colonel O'Donnell, sir. It's about the lab at Lodonia."<p>

Frowning, Lukas stepped forward, away from Stella, who looked over at him with a curious expression. "There was an accident, and they failed to destroy the site." The crewman said in an undertone. "To make matters worse, ZAFT found it."

-"You're kidding me." Lukas muttered. If ZAFT had found Lodonia, that was trouble. The other man shook his head.

-"We've notified Suez and they're scrambling to do something about it. But I thought you should know, sir."

-"Thank you. We'll have to see what we can do about protecting ourselves if the worst happens." He said. The crewman left, and Lukas headed back towards Stella.

-"It's getting late, Stella. Why don't you and Auel go find Dr. Rice, and he'll get you all to bed." He said in a falsely optimistic tone. Stella nodded, and left the hangar. Lukas soon followed, headed for the bridge.

Auel and Stella, along with Dr. Rice, were headed towards the Extendeds' room, when Stella suddenly spoke.  
>"The lab at Lodonia...what is it?" She asked in a small voice.<p>

-"Don't you remember? It's the place we lived before we came here." Auel said casually.

-"That's right." Rice said. "Now come on Stella. Time to sleep." He opened the door, and Auel walked in first, then Rice. "I wonder what brought that up." Rice mumbled.

-"To make matters worse, ZAFT found it." Stella repeated softly, remembering what she had heard."And then Lukas said..."

Rice stopped cold when he heard what she had said. To make matters worse, Auel heard too, and he panicked. He immediately headed towards the door, and Dr. Rice had to grab him by the arm to restrain him. But Auel struggled, and he was surprisingly strong for his size.

"Come on Auel, calm down damn it!"

-"Calm down! How do you expect me to calm down?" Auel retorted, turning on him as he broke free. "That lab is where my mother..."

_'Shit. The stupid little brat said his own block word.'_ Rice thought as Auel suddenly froze, his expression frantic and terrified.

"Mo...mother...is she...still there?" He asked, shaking. "Mother...Mother's gonna die!" He screamed.

_'Damn it.'_ Rice swore inwardly. Not only the stupid little lab rat was going frantic from using his own block word, but now he'd used Stella's as well. He turned towards her.  
>She looked frightened, but for some reason her reaction was less extreme than he would have expected.<p>

"Die?" she whispered, shaking slightly. Then she started walking, out the door.

-"Stella, stop right there! Stop damn it, you little..."

She ignored him completely, leaving the room. And then she started to run. A handkerchief fell out of her pocket as she did so. Dr. Kinney moved to follow her, while Rice continued to struggle with Auel.

"You, and you! Go after her!" Rice ordered two of the orderlies who were at the console. The two of them scrambled after Stella, and Rice turned to his colleague "And Kinney, help me get this one under control, damn it!"

Dr. Kinney walked slowly towards them and crouched in front of Auel. As she did so, she discreetly picked up and pocketed the handkerchief.

"We're going to have to wipe them clean again." Rice said. Kinney did not respond, but preoccupied herself with getting Auel to calm down. Privately she wondered about Stella, and hoped they could prevent her from doing something that might end up with her injured, or worse.

Stella meanwhile was still running, and the two orderlies were having trouble keeping up. "Die?" she muttered as she ran, "But I don't...want to die. I'm scared." Suddenly, she stopped, as a flood of images she didn't understand flashed through her mind. Dark hair, red eyes. A promise.  
>"Protect..." Her eyes narrowed, her expression determined.<p>

At that moment one of the orderlies caught up and grabbed hold of her arm. She turned and slammed him in the throat with the edge of her hand, cutting off his air supply. He let go, grabbing for his own throat, and she kicked him, knocking him into the other orderly. Then she started running again. She soon reached her destination: The hangar.

Before any of the mechanics realized what had happened, the Gaia was activated.

"Open that hatch!" She demanded over the Gaia's communications system. "Open it, or I'll blow it apart!"

The officer overseeing the repairs realized what had happened, and grabbed a phone - he had to get to the Colonel. The communication came through to the bridge, and Lukas picked up immediately.

"What is it?" He asked. Then as he heard what they were saying, he swore, slamming down the handset, and left the bridge, heading for the hangar. When he got there, the Gaia was gone.

"Idiots. Why did you let her out?" He asked harshly. Then he turned towards the hatch, and saw that they hadn't. She had literally blasted the hangar open.

**Lodonia Laboratory**

Yzak and Arthur, along with Athrun and Shinn, had entered the lab and were exploring it.  
>As they entered the room where Athrun and Shinn had seen the bodies, Arthur let out a cry of disgust and covered his mouth and nose with a handkerchief. The stench of blood and rotten flesh was overpowering.<br>Athrun and Shinn walked behind them, as they continued throughout the facility. Everywhere they found corpses, apparently of medical or scientific personnel. All around them the ground was dark with dried blood.

Arthur swept a flashlight across the next room they entered, and screamed. The beam had fallen on a cracked glass compartment like the ones they'd found throughout the lab. The corpse inside was that of a child, who appeared to have been no more than five or six years old.

"Even children..." Athrun commented, horrified. Shinn looked aghast at what he saw, his expression a mix of disgust and anger.

"What in heaven's name...What is this place?" Arthur exclaimed as he swept his flashlight along the wall, revealing still more glass compartments, each one containing the corpse of a child. Their apparent ages varied, but none of them looked older than ten. "What happened here?"

-"A mutiny..." Yzak muttered. "That's what this looks like. They were going to blow up the lab, and the personnel here protested. So they killed every last one of them...but why didn't they destroy it? The charges were set and rigged, so why didn't they blow?"

-"But what is this place? What's with all these children?" Arthur asked.

-"That's what we're trying to find out. Now come on." Yzak said shortly.

Two of the walls of the next room they entered were lined with brains - human, judging from their size. There were dozens of them, in sealed glass cases.

In the center of the room were a couple of computers, which appeared to still work. Yzak sat down and started searching for more information.

"Here we go. "Year 64, July, 11 discarded, 3 admitted. August. 7 discarded, 5 admitted." He started to read. "They're some kind of records...of the arrival and departure of test subjects."

-"In other words, children." Athrun supplemented as he pulled up similar, more recent records on the other computer. "They're the Alliance's so-called "Extended Humans" - I'm sure you've heard about them."

Then he saw something else, someone he recognized.  
>"Clotho Buer..."Biological CPU" for the GAT-X370 Raider." He mumbled. He kept scrolling, recognizing the pilots of the Forbidden and Calamity as well. And then...<p>

"Shinn, come here a second." He said. Shinn turned to face him, looking puzzled.

-"What is it?" He asked. He walked over to the console and looked at the screen. At first, nothing struck his eye. And then he saw a face he thought looked familiar. Light blue hair, blue eyes...where had he seen that face before? He looked at the name: Auel Neider.

"Auel...Neider..." Below was a unit designation - GAT-X731 Abyss - and data on a mobile suit. Shinn recognized the amphibious mobile suit they'd previously encountered.

Then, something came to mind, something he had heard very recently.

_"There must be someone who would worry if you were missing. Who are you usually with? What about your father, or your mother?"_

_-"I'm with Lukas...and Auel. Father? Mother?...I...don't know."_

A horrible suspicion began to take shape in Shinn's mind. For a few moments, he refused to believe it. But then as Athrun continued scrolling down the records, he saw her.

"It...can't be." He muttered, horrified. But there it was, irrefutable proof. Stella Loussier was her full name. Listed as the Biological CPU for the GAT-X388 Gaia, which he recognized as the black ground type he had fought in the Indian Ocean, which they had encountered again in the last battle. There was no possibility of a coincidence - the photo made it clear: it was unmistakably her. A rage like nothing he'd ever known before burned through him, and he only dimly heard Yzak as he spoke.

-"Though they profess to detest genetic manipulation, the Alliance and Blue Cosmos are not above experimenting with the creation of living weapons through drugs and other means; humans who exist only to fight. They don't even consider them as anything more than equipment. "Biological CPUs", they call them." he spat angrily, "Just another part for their mobile suits. And this was their...production facility. With performance-enhancing drugs and other means, they were able to enhance their bodies, enabling them to compete physically against Coordinators. Then they were put through the most rigorous combat training imaginable. Those who couldn't keep up were discarded mercilessly."

They left the facility, disgusted, and Yzak got in contact with the _Minerva_.

"We'll gather as much data as we can now - I'm sure a team of specialists will be here soon. Although I can't see the Alliance leaving this place in our hands. Keep an eye out for enemy forces."

-"Yes, sir." Came the reply.

"This is crazy." Shinn said angrily. "It's unbelievable. They go on and on about Coordinators being a crime against nature...and then, they do this?"

Athrun, who was seated nearby, looked up at him, as Shinn's tone of voice rose. "How can they say tinkering with genes is wrong, when they're doing things like this? What the hell kind of monsters are these people?"

-"Shinn..." Athrun started to say. He briefly wondered at the violence of Shinn's reaction, but he knew from experience that Shinn had a temper. Besides... "I couldn't agree with you more. It is wrong, what they're doing here."

At that moment, a communication rang through on the console near to which Yzak still stood. The face of Bart Heim appeared on the screen as he contacted them from the _Minerva_. "Captain. Our sensors are picking up one incoming mobile suit. It's that new ground-type."

Shinn overheard the transmission. _'Ground type...it's the Gaia.'_ He thought, remembering the data he'd seen. _'Could it be...?'_ Still reluctant to believe it, Shinn immediately ran for the Impulse. Athrun stood and followed, boarding the GOUF Ignited.

"Just one unit?" Yzak asked. "Any sign of backup?"

-"Negative, sir."

-"What the hell..." Yzak wondered. Then he picked up a radio and opened a link to the two mobile suits, their pilots already aboard. "Shinn, Athrun! Defend the complex. You got that?"

-"Yes, sir!" came the simultaneous reply from both pilots. Moments later the Impulse and GOUF Ignited took off, moving on an intercept course towards the approaching Gaia.

Shinn accelerated as the Gaia neared.

"Careful, Shinn!" Athrun cautioned. "If it's here to destroy the facility, then it could be carrying some kind of explosive. Defeat it without destroying it completely."

-"I know." Shinn said firmly. "That's exactly what I plan to do." _'But that's not the reason why...I have to...'_ he thought.

The Gaia leaped, firing its twin back-mounted beam cannons. Shinn dodged the attack and, aiming carefully, fired at its right wing. The Gaia dodged, then Stella shoved the throttles forward, slamming the Gaia into the Impulse.

The Impulse nearly crashed on the ground below, Shinn only just righting it in time to land. In front of him, the Gaia too was on the ground, having switched to mobile suit mode.

Stella was about to attack when, from above, Athrun fired the GOUF's beam rifle. She blocked the attack and, reverting to quadruped mode, leaped, aiming to cut the GOUF in half like she had the last one. Athrun narrowly dodged and countered with the Slayer Whip, electrocuting the Gaia. The enemy machine fell, but Stella righted herself for a second and fired the Gaia's twin beam cannons at the GOUF. Athrun dodged the attack and countered with the beam rifle, firing a pair of shots that clipped off the Gaia's wings. Knocked off-balance and reeling from the blow, the Gaia crash-landed on the ground below.  
>The impact knocked loose its beam rifle, which fell to the ground, damaged and useless.<p>

The damaged Gaia stood with some difficulty, but before it could attack Shinn moved in, saber drawn, and aimed a vertical slash across its torso. Stella screamed in fear as she backed away, but she was not quite fast enough to avoid the attack and the blade carved a narrow gash across the entire length of the torso. The Gaia fell to the ground, and she was knocked unconscious.

Shinn focused in on the cockpit, and through the groove cut into its torso by his saber, he clearly saw his fear realized as he recognized the pilot.

"It is you...Stella."


	16. Phase 16: Unfulfilled Feelings

**PHASE 16: Unfulfilled Feelings**

**Eurasian Federation**  
><strong>Lodonia Biological CPU Development Laboratory<strong>

Shutting down the Impulse's thrusters, Shinn opened the cockpit and clambered down until he stood on the Gaia's torso. He climbed in, detaching the harness, and lifted Stella from the seat, carrying her out.

_'Stella...why'd it have to be you?'_ He asked silently as he remembered their encounter, only a few days before. She was unconscious, and a wound on her head was bleeding profusely.  
>As he held her in his arms, she stirred for a moment.<p>

"Can't...die...scared...protect..." She said weakly, her eyes half-open. Then she closed her eyes and lost consciousness again.

The GOUF Ignited landed not far away, and Athrun opened the cockpit and stepped out.  
>Shinn ignored him, moving back towards the Impulse, Stella in his arms.<p>

"Wait a minute..." Athrun muttered as he saw Shinn move, holding a young girl in an Alliance uniform that had to be the Gaia's pilot. He thought he recognized the pretty blonde girl Shinn had met in Bandirma. The one whose photograph had been in the data they found at the lab.

"Shinn!" He hailed the other pilot. "Hey Shinn, what're you doing?" Shinn did not listen, and the Impulse's cockpit hatch closed. Moments later, the Impulse took off.

"Damn it." Athrun mumbled, then got on the radio and contacted Yzak back at the lab.

"The enemy machine is down. I'm not sure why, but it apparently was not carrying any kind of heavy weapon or explosives intended to destroy the facility." He reported.

-"Good. Now, why the hell's the Impulse taking off? Where's Shinn going?" Yzak replied.

-"Not sure. Apparently the pilot was injured in the battle, and I'd say Shinn's taking her back to the _Minerva_."

-"What? Has he lost his mind?" Arthur interjected.

-"Go after him." Yzak ordered Athrun. He didn't know what the hell Shinn was thinking, but he wondered if it might've had anything to do with the incident Athrun had reported a few days earlier.

-"Right." Athrun acknowledged, and the GOUF took off in pursuit.  
>Then Yzak sent orders to Çanakkale to have two mobile suits sent out to retrieve the enemy machine, and he notified the <em>Minerva<em>.

"I'm heading back to the ship." Yzak told Arthur. "You take over here until we're done.

In the _Minerva_'s hangar, meanwhile, an emergency alert rang out advising the crew of the Impulse's impending return.  
>"The Impulse is coming back?" Yolant asked as they immediately moved to open the catapult. "Why's it returning already?"<p>

-"Don't look at me, I don't know!" Vino retorted as the Impulse soared through the open catapult and into the hangar. In the time it took for it to land and shut down, the GOUF Ignited had also returned, and Athrun left its cockpit just as Shinn descended from the Impulse and reached the hangar floor.

"What's going on, Shinn?" Vino asked. It took a second before he realized that Shinn was holding a girl in his arms, and another before he registered that she wore an Alliance military uniform.

-"Shut up and get out of my way!" Shinn retorted, shoving past Vino and running from the hangar.

Athrun followed close behind, but by the time he reached the lift the door was closed.

"I can't...die. Not yet..." Stella whispered as they rode the elevator.

-"You won't. Not if I can help it." He said, not sure if she could hear him. "I swear it, I'll protect you."

The lift doors opened, and two crewmembers stood in front of the doors. "Move outta my way!" Shinn yelled as he elbowed past them and shot down the hall.  
>"The hell? What's going on?" one of them wondered. At last Shinn reached his destination: The medical bay.<p>

"Doctor! She needs medical attention!" He yelled, a panicked edge to his voice.

-"What's going on here?" He asked. "That's an Alliance uniform!"

-"So what? She's injured." He retorted.

-"She's the pilot of that machine, isn't she?" asked another voice. Shinn looked up: It was Heine, who had just limped into the room. "I was up on the bridge when Yzak reported that you and Athrun'd captured an Alliance unit that attacked at the lab. Well done."

-"She is." Shinn answered.  
>At that moment Athrun entered, followed by a half-dozen MPs. Heine waved them down.<p>

-"Very well. I suppose as long as she's guarded it can't hurt." Heine replied. Then he turned to the doctor. "I suppose as a patient myself I shouldn't, but I'm invoking my authority as an agent of FAITH. I'll authorize her treatment. Two MPs will remain here as long as necessary."

-"Well, I can't argue with that." The doctor said reluctantly. "But if she dies..."

-"No!" Shinn yelled, rushing towards Stella. At the sound of the word she had panicked again and she lunged off the bed. He caught her in his arms.

-"Stella, calm down! You're not going to die!" He said as she struggled. She stopped struggling for a moment, and the doctor sedated her. A few minutes later, she was asleep, strapped down into the bed by her wrists and ankles.

Eventually Yzak arrived, and ordered Shinn brought to his office. Heine followed, and the two arrived soon afterwards.

"I don't know what's going through your head, kid." Yzak said, addressing Shinn. "Who the hell authorized you to bring an enemy soldier aboard a ZAFT vessel? That's a clear violation of military law on at least two counts - Article 4, section 2, and Article 11, section 6. That's grounds for a court-martial. Now you tell me why I shouldn't just arrest your idiotic ass right now."

-"I'm sorry, sir." Shinn said flatly.

-"I understand you know this girl. Stella, did you say her name was?"

Shinn nodded before replying. "Stella Loussier. I met her in Bandirma a few days ago."

-"So she's the one - the one who fell off a cliff." Yzak replied. Shinn nodded again. "And the truth of the matter is, she was this machine, the Gaia's pilot. The same machine that shot down Heine's GOUF when we fought against them in the Dardanelles. Before that, the Indian Ocean. And before that, during the Junius Seven incident."

Shinn nodded. He did not say anything about what he'd seen at Lodonia though.

"And still you brought her here. And who the hell authorized you to force the doctor to treat her?"

-"That would be me, Captain." Heine replied. "The prisoner is secured, and I've placed her under armed guard. She won't try anything." He said flatly, though there was an oddly knowing look in his eyes as he glanced at Shinn. Yzak shrugged, but before he replied, the intercom beeped with a communication from the medical bay.

-"Captain, could you come down here?" the doctor asked.

-"I'll be right there." Yzak replied. Shinn followed, as did Heine, still leaning on a crutch. Athrun, who'd been waiting outside, followed as well.

"Her outward injuries were rather severe, but we examined her more thoroughly just in case, and we found something rather troubling." The doctor said. "It appears this girl is one of the Alliance's Extendeds."

-"I thought so." Yzak said, glancing sideways at Shinn. When he noted that Shinn did not appear surprised, he suspected that Shinn might also have guessed, and made a mental note to talk to him about it later.

-"She's sedated for now, but there's no telling how long that will last. Her examination results were rather unbelievable; abnormally high levels of many natural chemicals. More troubling is that there are also traces of several substances not normally found in the human body, and in high quantities. I suspect her higher brain functions may also have been tampered with."

-"Enhancements done artificially. With drugs?"

-"Yes, and maybe other means as well. I can't say for sure until we conduct additional tests at a more specialized facility, but initial results are consistent with the data we found at the laboratory here. I can't be sure how she'll react to medical treatment."

Stella regained consciousness at that moment, slowly opening her eyes. Shinn stepped forward.

"Stella?" He said softly, looking at her.

-"Huh...who...are you?" She asked.

_'She doesn't recognize me...how?'_ Shinn wondered, and he felt himself growing angry again. He took a deep, steadying breath.  
>Stella made to sit up, and she realized she couldn't; she saw that she was strapped down.<br>"This place...what is it?" She said and she began trying to break free, panicking as she struggled against the restraints.

-"Stella!" Shinn yelled, sounding frightened. "Calm down, nobody's going to hurt you!" He said, his arms around her. As he tried to calm her down, the small shell he wore around his neck slipped out from his jacket, and she saw it. After a moment she stopped struggling, staring fixedly at the little pink shell.

"You gave that to me. Don't you remember?" Shinn asked. He looked around and found a pile of her clothes, an identical shell on a thin chain sitting on top of it. He grabbed it and held it out to her. "Here. This is yours."

Then he unfastened the clasp and placed the chain around her neck. "Nobody's going to hurt you."

-"I don't...where's Lukas? I don't...like this place." She said, and after a while she lost consciousness again.

"They even tampered with her memory." Athrun said coldly, a disgusted expression on his face as the four men looked down at the unconscious girl. Then he turned to leave. Yzak soon followed, as did Heine, but Shinn did not. His fists clenched, he sat down in a chair in medical, looking across at Stella and wondering what kind of monsters could have done that to her...

**Alliance Naval Base - Izmir**  
><strong>CVN-133S <strong>**_John Paul Jones_**

Lukas O'Donnell was in his quarters, the door locked. On the screen in front of him was the smug face of Teivel Jibril - the leader of Blue Cosmos and a high-ranking member of the influential cabal Logos - and by extension his boss, since after all Phantom Pain was little more than the official military arm of that secretive organization. At the moment, Jibril looked angry.

"I'm not the kind of man who likes to dwell on events in the past. But neither am I one to tolerate repeated failure." Jibril said haughtily. "Despite your best efforts, things haven't gone as planned, Captain O'Donnell. However, orders are given with the expectation that they will be carried out. We are not playing games, here."

-"Yes, that has been made clear to me." Lukas replied evenly.

-"If it is clear to you, then hurry up and do as you are told! Otherwise, our other plans are going to be affected as well." As he spoke, Jibril glanced at a display on his own desk, which showed a set of schematics for Adukurf's next prototype mobile armor.

"Lately, all these anti-Alliance groups have been holding up the _Minerva _as their hero, saying that ZAFT forces are the champions of justice." Jibril continued speaking, his tone irritated and disdainful. "Of course this is nonsense - it's simply that these Coordinators have been fortunate in battle."

-"You're right about that." O'Donnell consented. He could speak from personal experience as to the battle strength of that ship and its pilots.

-"Then there's Orb." Jibril spat angrily. "And even that fool Baum is beginning to consider approaching the PLANT government directly. Sooner or later they will have to be dealt with as well." After a moment's pause, Jibril continued slightly more calmly. "They are all pathetic - failing to give any consideration to the future and embracing whatever is most convenient at the drop of a hat."

-"Yes, that certainly is true." Lukas assented - witness the event in Gulnahan, after ZAFT had annihilated the Alliance's outpost there.

-"How could they let themselves be fooled so easily?" Jibril asked rhetorically before continuing. "We're talking about Coordinators here! Mark my words, they will turn against them at some point. That's why that ship is such a problem - it's simply too dangerous to leave alone! Make sure you destroy it this time."

-"Yes, sir. Now, what about this latest development - the loss of one of our Extendeds?" Lukas inquired. Since the disappearance of Stella and the Gaia the previous day, the destroyed hangar exit hatch was being repaired on the _Jones, _but the loss had important implications for the ship, as it represented a fifth of their overall battle strength - not including the Daggers he'd requisitioned from Izmir, which against the _Minerva _were likely little more than cannon fodder anyway.

-"Write it off." Jibril said sharply. "The loss can't be helped, but I'm certain the enemy has suffered their own setbacks in the fighting. Just destroy the _Minerva_, Captain - after all, don't forget that this is the reason you and your team exist in the first place."  
>And the screen went blank as Jibril cut the communication.<p>

Later, O'Donnell made his way down to the room in which the ship's remaining Extended, Auel Neider, was sleeping. Dr. Kinney and Dr. Rice were both there as well. He had been in contact with Lord Jibril, and his orders had been clear. He addressed Kinney and Rice as he entered.

"The brass are still deciding what to do about the Lodonia incident, but meanwhile we are to treat the loss of the Gaia and its Biological CPU as irrecoverable." He said, sounding irritated.

Kinney likewise appeared annoyed at the statement.

-"Well, I guess that's the military term for it. Impersonal." She replied irritably. Rice glowered at her.

-"I suppose I understand why." Lukas replied. "Sorry, but could you erase her from his memories?"

-"Erase her completely?" Kinney replied. "You realize how difficult that would be?"

-"I know. But it needs to be done - both her and the Gaia."

-"Right." Rice replied, glaring at Kinney. "We'll get right on it."

A few days passed. Additional supplies and reinforcements arrived for the Jones. A second Windam, to be assigned to Mudie instead of the Dagger; it already sported the 501st's distinctive black colors, and would be fitted with the same equipment: an Aile Striker and one of the two rocket anchors normally equipped to her previous Dagger; Mudie opted this time to retain the larger shield with its missile launchers. Additionally, three Jet Daggers were added to its complement.

On the bridge of the John Paul Jones Captain Bernard McCaffrey, the ship's commanding officer, pondered the recent developments his ship had seen.  
>As much as McCaffrey was wary of O'Donnell and utterly despised that lab monkey Rice, he had become rather fond of the Phantom Pain Commander's two young charges, especially Stella. He thus found particularly distasteful the contempt with which Lord Jibril had ordered the lost pilot written off, as if she had been no more than a defective piece of equipment. But then again, that was the way of it, he thought scornfully. He read through his own orders, then turned to his XO and ordered him to begin preparations for launch as soon as possible.<p>

**Çanakkale Seaport**  
><strong>LHM-BB01 <strong>**_Minerva_**

At last the repairs to the _Minerva_ and its mobile suits were complete, and they were ready to set sail; They were still short-handed, as Heine was in no condition to pilot, but his GOUF Ignited had been replaced. Additionally, along with the remaining ZAKU and the Impulse and Saviour Gundams, the ship carried one additional UMF/S-6 ASSH aquatic mobile suit, bringing its total to four, plus two more GOUF Ignited mass-production types.  
>The Gaia had been recovered and loaded onboard as well; being an Alliance mobile suit, it alone had thus far not been repaired.<br>In the ship's hangar, Aves looked up at the mobile suit, impressed at its design, and wondered if there wasn't anything that could be done to render it combat-ready again. He browsed through the data on the mobile suit, gathered from information gleaned at that lab as well as from their own encounters with the machine. Then he returned his attention to the rest.

With much of his own crew occupied by repairs to the ship itself, the bulk of the mobile suit repairs including to the Saviour had been done by additional repair teams from Çanakkale and Bandirma. Still, they'd done a great job with it, and the ship was as combat-ready as it could be under the circumstances.

On the bridge, Arthur relayed the order.  
>"Prepare for ascent; the <em>Minerva<em> is taking off." He said. "Our destination: Gibraltar." He was relieved that, if all went well, they would soon arrive at Gibraltar, ZAFT's second-largest base on Earth. The ship slowly rose vertically, then its thrusters adjusted and it began moving forward, slowly at first but gradually picking up speed.

The door to the infirmary opened, and Shinn entered. The doctor was absent but a nurse was there, reviewing Stella's condition. When she saw Shinn enter, she stepped outside, and he headed straight for the bed, off to the side, where Stella had been placed.

_'The girl I met by the sea...all that time, you were the pilot of the Gaia, too.' _Shinn thought as he looked at her.  
>Stella appeared to be sleeping, but she stirred, looking troubled. He wondered if she was having a nightmare. He crouched next to her, resting his hand on her forehead. She felt warm to the touch.<p>

"Help...me...Lukas." She whispered.

-"I knew it was you. But you couldn't recognize me, could you...how terrible. To have even your memories stolen from you." Shinn said softly. He remembered the encounter well, and as he thought about it his hand slipped to her cheek, where she had had him place it before.

She stirred at his touch, and her eyes opened. She looked at him vaguely, then her gaze found the shell around his neck.

"Sh...Shinn." She whispered.

-"Stella?" He said, hardly believing what he was hearing. She knew - she remembered his name.

-"You...you came to see me." She said, a small smile on her face. "Thank you."  
>He nodded in response.<p>

-"That's right," he said, "I'm here. Everything's all right now."

Athrun was in the ship's rec room, mulling over the events of the past few days. He saw Heine approaching, leaning on a crutch, and stood to greet him when Lunamaria also approached.  
>"Oh, Lunamaria." Athrun said as he saw her. "Something on your mind?"<p>

-"No, sir. I was just..." She started. "I was just wondering where Shinn was. Have you seen him?"

-"I believe he went into the infirmary a little while ago." Athrun replied.

-"Again?" Lunamaria asked. "He's been in there a lot. It's weird."

-"Is it so strange?" Heine said as he sat down. There was an odd, knowing sort of look in his eyes. "Why is that?"

-"Well, that girl's an Alliance pilot, right? So why is he so concerned about her?" She asked. "I've known Shinn for a long time; He hates the Alliance - Comm...Athrun, you've seen how he gets about Orb, right?" She asked, turning to Athrun.

-"Yeah, I have." Athrun answered, uncomfortably.

-"Well, he's even worse about the Alliance. And yet...It just doesn't make sense. I've never seen him act like this before." Lunamaria said.

-"Well, perhaps there is something there that wasn't there before." Heine said cryptically.

-"What do you mean, sir?" Lunamaria asked, puzzled.

-"Oh, never mind." Heine said casually. "But I don't think it's anything to worry about."

-"If you say so, sir." Lunamaria replied, then with a brief salute she continued on her way, wondering just what Heine could have been talking about...  
>Heine turned to Athrun as the latter sat down again.<p>

"Now you _definitely _have something on your mind, Athrun." He said.

-"I was just thinking..." he started, "about the battle before."

-"You mean Rey?" Heine asked, cutting straight to what he guessed was most weighing on Athrun's mind. "You blame yourself for what happened."

Athrun nodded.  
>-"I just keep wondering...if there was something more I could have done." He said.<p>

-"Maybe. Maybe not," Heine said seriously, "but there's no use beating yourself up about it. Take it from someone who's been there."

Athrun looked up at Heine, wondering what he meant. Heine soon answered the question.  
>"Athrun. You and I both fought in the Great War a few years ago. And we've both seen our share of deaths. Even now - I lost a few good friends of mine when the <em>Montesquieu<em> was attacked during the Junius Seven operation." Heine started to say.

Athrun looked at him, and suddenly he remembered something: In the confusion of that battle, he'd caught brief glimpses of an orange ZAKU - the very same colors as the GOUF Ignited Heine piloted.  
>-"I was there too." He said. "I was leading the memorial delegation escorts - there were five of us, piloting Murasames. I didn't really know the others, but..."<p>

-"But all of them were wiped out. I read the report." Heine said somberly. "Then they sent what remained of us down to Earth, to support the Ruddle Team." This bit of news surprised Athrun. He knew that ZAFT had previously tried to take the Lohengrin Gate before the _Minerva_ arrived; but he didn't know that Heine had been there, and he was surprised that Heine hadn't mentioned it before.

-"I see." He replied, guessing the rest - the ZAFT forces that had attacked had been nearly wiped out, only one Petrie-class and a handful of mobile suits returning.

-"It's understandable, what you're feeling right now." Heine continued. "But don't let it get you down. It wasn't your fault."

-"Thanks." Athrun said sincerely, grateful to have someone who understood what he was feeling.

-"No problem." Heine said with a smile, clapping him on the back.

Meanwhile, in the medical bay, the doctor continued to monitor his patient's condition, and there was something worrying about it.  
>"Do you have her latest biochemistry data?" He asked the nurse on duty.<p>

-"One moment, sir. I'll get it right away." she replied, and brought over the requested data.

-"Hmm...this isn't good." The doctor said, reading through. "Get an oxygen mask."

As they slid the mask on, the door opened and Shinn walked in.  
>-"Stella? Doctor! What's happening?" he asked, his voice full of concern. Not for the first time, the doctor wondered why this boy was so fixated, so concerned with the health of one enemy pilot. And an Extended no less...<p>

-"Please stay back." he said shortly. "This doesn't make sense...I just can't figure it out." he mumbled as he turned to his console again. "As I said to you before, all these drugs have had a variety of different effects, and to be honest we have no idea how her body will react to treatment. Apparently, her body requires regular maintenance using some kind of special equipment, and unfortunately we don't currently know what that equipment might be...or what will happen to her without it."

-"You're...you're kidding." Shinn replied.

Stella stirred at that moment, her eyes opening. Weakly, she tried to raise her hand, to reach out to him. Shinn stepped forward and took her hand in his.  
>-"Shinn...I'm scared..." She said weakly. "Shinn...protect me..."<p>

-"I will." He said softly. "Stella...don't be scared."

Oblivious to the scene behind him, the doctor remained at his console.  
>-"When it comes to drugs such as these, I'm afraid the Naturals are far more advanced than we are. Bastards." he said.<p>

Shinn stayed at her side for a few more minutes, and after a while Stella lost consciousness again. As he reluctantly stood to leave, the doctor turned towards him.

-"I have to wonder though," he said, "why exactly you're so concerned about her. And how is it that you know her name? Or that she knows yours for that matter?"

-"It's...kind of a long story." Shinn said evasively, and he left. He went up to the _Minerva_'s observation deck, wanting to get some fresh air and try to clear his head. The doctor's questions were still on his mind. Why did he care so much?  
>He was still there when Athrun came out onto the deck. As Athrun stepped towards him, he stopped. Shinn was softly humming to himself a slow tune Athrun had never heard before. The sheer incongruity of the sight aside, the melody was hauntingly beautiful and, Athrun thought, incredibly sad.<p>

Hearing footsteps, Shinn stopped and turned to face Athrun.  
>"Word on the ship is, you're spending a lot of time in medical." Athrun started to say. "You're worried about her?"<p>

-"Yeah." Shinn said. "They're saying she's not getting better. And I'm worried about what might happen when we leave."

-"Well, we've orders to keep her onboard when we do." Athrun revealed. Yzak had told him earlier they'd received orders from Headquarters to deliver the Extended to Gibraltar, where she would be taken to a better-equipped facility for further treatment. "We're to deliver her and the data we got from the lab to Gibraltar. The facilities there are much better equipped, so she should be okay."

-"I just don't want her to die." Shinn said, and from the concern in his voice Athrun knew that there was more to it than that.

-"After everything she's already been through, I suppose not. When the Gaia showed up, at that lab...you'd already guessed it was her."

Shinn nodded. "I saw that data in there, I recognized her. When the Gaia arrived, I guess...I hoped it wasn't, but yeah."

Athrun thought it explained why he had gone for a saber strike instead of using the beam rifle; he'd disabled the Gaia without killing the pilot. But the question still remained of why he had even been so concerned. Remembering what Heine had said earlier, he thought he guessed what the real reason was, but did not press the point.  
>But he did have one question.<br>"That melody you were humming. Did...?"

-"It was the first time I saw her - when she fell over that cliff, in Bandirma. She was humming it. I guess I remembered it because I was thinking about her." Shinn answered.

His guess confirmed, Athrun turned to head back inside. Laying one hand on Shinn's shoulder, he said. "Don't worry too much about it. I'm sure the doc's doing everything he can. Come on, let's head inside."  
>Shinn nodded, and the two men returned together to the ship.<p>

**Mediterranean Sea**  
><strong>Orb supercarrier NDC-01 <strong>**_Takemikazuchi_**

The massive supercarrier _Takemikazuchi_, flanked by the much smaller_ John Paul Jones_, was on station in the Mediterranean Sea west of Crete, having set sail the previous evening. Both ships had a sizable escort, consisting of eight Kuraomikami- and Aegis-class escort ships, plus a number of Alliance Arkansas- and Frasier-class.

On the _Takemikazuchi_'s bridge, Lukas O'Donnell was briefing Yuna Roma Seiran and Colonel Todaka on their strategy for taking out their target: The _Minerva_, which would as before be traveling without the benefit of an escort. Also present was Captain McCaffrey.

"As you can see, at its heart the plan is quite simple. If all goes well, we should easily be able to take out the _Minerva_ if we attack it here." Lukas said, pointing out a specific position on the map.

-"Yes, but are you sure things will go this smoothly?" McCaffrey asked. "First of all, how reliable is the intelligence you're basing this on? Spreading a net like this is not in itself a bad idea, but if the _Minerva_..."

-"Hey hey, that's enough. There's no use being so negative after we've come all this way." Yuna interrupted, "I wouldn't bring our fleet all the way out here on a wild guess. There's no doubt that the _Minerva_ will follow this route to Gibraltar."

_'Maybe that's what worries me...'_ Standing next to McCaffrey, Todaka thought to himself as he remembered not only their last encounter with ZAFT's newest assault carrier, but the first time he had seen the ship in battle. He distinctly recalled having been shocked by the sheer brutality of its assault on the Alliance. That one mobile suit in particular...

"They'll be setting sail any minute!" Yuna continued. "The Captain and I have already gone over the details of the operation. All you need to worry about is what to do once it shows up."

Lukas smirked. Todaka was a shrewd commander - that was his strength. That said, Yuna's sycophantic pandering would prove more useful in this situation.  
>-"Such accurate intelligence, and so decisive." He said smoothly. "That is your strength, Lord Yuna. Orb should be fortunate to have such a competent presence as overall commander of such a fleet."<p>

-"Oh, it's nothing, really." Yuna said, falsely modest.

-"Well then. The fighting could be pretty intense, but we have to succeed here." Lukas continued.

-"And the Orb forces are more than capable. We will show you the true strength of our nation by sinking this ship." Yuna replied. Then he turned to Todaka and his XO, who looked concerned. "A problem?" He asked.

-"If those are your orders, then it is our duty to carry them out." Todaka said flatly.

-"I expect your best." Yuna added condescendingly.

-"I don't expect that strange ship to make an appearance this time, but it might." Lukas said, addressing Yuna - who understood perfectly that the Alliance commander was referring to the _Archangel_. "If it does show up, you won't have any problems, will you?"

-"Of course not." Yuna said.

-"Very well then. As long as we're clear...McCaffrey and I are returning to the _Jones_. We will take up our own position and prepare to attack the _Minerva_ when it arrives."

**LCAM-01XA ****_Archangel  
><em>****Off the coast of Samothrace**

On the bridge of the _Archangel_, Murrue, Kira and the rest of the crew were discussing the same situation. Also present was Miriallia, newly returned to the ship.

"So the Orb fleet is gathering off the coast of Crete." Murrue said. "It's likely that they're after the _Minerva_ again."

-"Yes ma'am." Chandra replied, glancing at the communication they'd received. "We still don't have confirmation, but that is how we should interpret this."

-"Their strategy seems to be riding on the _Minerva_'s destination being Gibraltar." Neumann commented. "The Alliance is getting desperate." At that moment, a console beeped. At her console, Miriallia pulled up the incoming transmission, which was encrypted. She decoded it and relayed its content. "The _Minerva_'s just left port - heading southwest."

-"That settles it. They're heading for Gibraltar" Murrue said firmly. "And that confirms that the Orb forces will attack the _Minerva_ at Crete."

-"Let's head out." Kira said. "Everything Lacus worked towards, everything we fought for...that's all in danger right now. That's why we have to go."

-"I see. Very well then. The _Archangel_ is heading out." Murrue said. Her orders were relayed throughout the ship as Kira headed towards the Freedom.  
>Soon, the ship was under way.<p>

Meanwhile, a recon-type Murasame deployed from the _Takemikazuchi_ had detected the approaching _Minerva_, and reported it to the ship as well as to the _Jones_.  
>"All hands, prepare for battle! I repeat, all hands prepare for battle!" The announcement rang throughout the <em>Takemikazuchi<em> as the pilots headed to their machines and prepared to take off.

On the _Jones_'s deck, Lukas O'Donnell had also received this information and began preparations as well.  
>"Very well then, let's begin. Captain McCaffrey, you take command. I'm going out."<p>

McCaffrey did not reply, focusing on issuing orders to his crew.  
>As O'Donnell reached the Chaos and strapped himself in, he thought of the Extended he had lost, only a few days ago.<p>

_'I know you're not here to take your revenge, Stella...'_ he thought as he prepared for launch, _'but today is the day we send that ship to hell.'_


	17. Phase 17: Survival and Sacrifice

**PHASE 17: Survival and Sacrifice**

**The Mediterranean Sea, off the western coast of Crete.  
>LHM-BB01 <strong>**_Minerva_**

"Enemy ships detected! One carrier, eight escort ships - it's the Orb fleet, sir." Bart Heim announced from his seat at the ship's sensor console.

-"What about that Alliance carrier?" Yzak asked.

-"Nothing yet, sir."

-"Keep looking for it. You can bet the Orb ships aren't out here alone." He replied, before addressing the entire crew. "Lower the bridge! Take us to Condition Red; all pilots stand by onboard their machines. Load Launchers 1 through 6 with Dispars, 7-10 with Parsifal. Load Wolfram in tubes 3 and 4, Fafnir in 1 and 2. This time, we're making the first move."

-"Yes, sir!"

-" Arthur, take the conn - I'm going out too."

-"Right."

As the bridge was lowered and the alert rang out, Shinn, Athrun and Lunamaria headed to their machines, even as Yzak left the bridge and headed to the hangar himself.  
>Meanwhile, preparations were also underway onboard the <em>Takemikazuchi<em> to begin the attack, as the ship's entire complement of Astray and Murasame mobile suits - roughly forty machines - began to take off.

"Distance, 60 to firing range!"

-"Is there any sign of mobile suits from the _Minerva_ yet?" Colonel Todaka asked.

-"Nothing yet, sir."

-"We win!" Yuna exclaimed. "Now then, let's..." Whatever Yuna was about to say, he was suddenly interrupted by an alert from the crewman monitoring the ship's sensors.

-"Missile launch detected from the _Minerva_! Two of them, closing fast!"

Todaka ordered a counterattack, but by that time it was too late. One of the _Minerva_'s deadliest weapons, the big "Fafnir" cruise missile was designed specifically to take out naval targets at long range, its supersonic terminal speed too high for all but the most sophisticated defense systems to even track. By the time the Orb ships' CIWS were even online, the two big missiles struck their targets - two Aegis-class escort ships - and the missiles' 450-kilogram warhead tore apart the ships' hulls like tissue paper.

-"Son of a..." Todaka muttered under his breath. None of the intelligence they had about the ship had even hinted at it possessing a missile capable of striking so quickly or with such devastating destructive power. If even one of those hit the _Takemikazuchi_, he suspected they could easily cripple the ship or worse.

"Counterattack. Load Type-8 fragmentation shells and fire!" He ordered.  
>The three remaining Orb escort ships fired, and their attack was detected immediately on the <em>Minerva<em>.

"30 to starboard!" Arthur ordered, "Evasive maneuvers and intercept!"  
>The ship's CIWS turrets sprang to life, successfully intercepting several of the numerous projectiles as they closed in. The majority of them however suddenly exploded, and shards rained down on the <em>Minerva<em>. Thankfully, the ship's movement had allowed them to evade the worst of the barrage, but the ship was still struck by a large amount of shrapnel, which pitted its hull and shattered the bridge windows above. Thankfully, the heavy bulkhead that sheltered the combat bridge held.

-"Four more ships at 9 o'clock, sir! One Alliance carrier, five escort ships - they're launching mobile suits! Also detecting nine Orb Murasames, two o'clock." Bart Heim reported.

-"Send out our mobile suits!" Arthur said. "Prepare to counterattack with Tristans and Isoldes."

As the _Minerva_ opened fire on the approaching Alliance ships, the Saviour launched from the catapult, closely followed by Shinn's Impulse Gundam, this time armed with the heavy-artillery Blast Silhouette.

As the Impulse, skimming the surface of the water, closed in on the attacking forces, the Abyss burst from the water below and fired a barrage from the multiphase beam cannon in its torso and the two plasma beam cannons on its back. He'd underestimated the Impulse's maneuverability though, and Shinn dodged the attack easily, countering with the two big "Kerberos" high-energy long-range beam cannons.  
>The Abyss slipped underwater, avoiding the attack.<p>

Above, Athrun once again found himself engaging the Chaos, which attacked him repeatedly with its linear cannons and the powerful beam cannon mounted on its upper back. Athrun dodged the attacks, countering with the Saviour's rifle, though the Chaos dodged as well.

Taking advantage of the fact that the Saviour was occupied, the Murasames slipped past and dove at the _Minerva_, firing first the four "Hayate" missiles from their internal launcher, then a volley of heavier missiles from wing-mounted hardpoints. The _Minerva_'s CIWS intercepted the attacks, and two of the nine attacking mobile suits fell, shot down by a volley from the ship's big beam cannons. Of the more than eighty missiles launched, only a half-dozen slipped through the net to strike the ship's hull.

Then the GOUF Igniteds launched, and the Murasames were forced to break off their attack run. At the same time, Lunamaria's Gunner ZAKU Warrior took its position on the deck.

Meanwhile, the enemy fleet was still closing, with the _Takemikazuchi_ and its three surviving escort ships on one side and the _Jones_ and its own four escorts on the other.  
>The enemy ships opened fire on the <em>Minerva<em>, firing a barrage of missiles at the ship.

"Intercept them and counterattack! Parsifals, fire!" While the hail of 40mm shells from the ship's CIWS staved off the barrage, a volley of heavy anti-ship missiles shot from its launchers, and one of the Alliance's Frasier-class escort ships went down. The _Jones_ was hanging well back, having retreated beyond firing range after launching its own mobile suits.

Arthur glanced at the map, which showed the ship pinned in between the two formations.  
>"So that was their plan...a pincer attack to pin us down at Crete. This is bad..."<p>

On the _Minerva's_ deck, Lunamaria fired at incoming Orb Astrays, shooting them down before they could launch an attack on the ship. Yzak meanwhile was above, holding off two particularly tenacious Alliance Windams, painted in distinctive black colors. The first was the same one he'd fought already before. The second was a Jet Windam, but equipped with a pair of rocket anchors, mounted one to each forearm and, Yzak noted, carrying a Dagger's beam carbine instead of the Windam's longer beam rifle.  
>The latter attacked, firing one of the rocket anchors at the blue GOUF Ignited, which neatly sidestepped the attack. as the anchor shot past, Yzak brought the blade of the GOUF's beam sword down, slicing the anchor's wire, then lashed out with the Slayer Whip, stripping it of its arm and the rifle it held as well as the second anchor. Then the Windam IWSP attacked, and Yzak was forced to dodge. The enemy unit moved into close-range, and Yzak parried its saber with the GOUF's beam sword before bringing to bear the "Draupnir" four-barreled beam machinegun. The Windam was forced to fall back to evade the point-blank attack, but another Murasame slipped past towards the ship.<p>

"DAMN IT!" Yzak turned to attack the enemy machine, but the Windam IWSP moved in again, forcing Yzak to block the saber strike with the GOUF's shield. When he counterattacked, Sven in the Windam IWSP deftly shifted the saber to block the attack.

As the duel between the two continued, the Murasame accelerated towards the _Minerva_, only to be mowed down by a withering hail of beam cannonfire from the other GOUF Igniteds' "Draupnir" machineguns.

When an Astray moved in behind the Murasame, it was cut down from below by the Impulse's "Déluge" railguns, which neatly blasted off its wings, sending the Dagger plummeting to crash into the ocean. Then the Abyss leaped from the water again and fired, this time firing a barrage from the two pairs of shell-firing weapons on its binders. Shinn dodged again, then fired a first volley from the Kerberos high-energly long-range plasma cannons.

"Not even close." Auel commented as he slipped underwater. He easily evaded an additional volley of shots from the enemy machine's railguns, then slipped into position to attack the Impulse from behind. "I'm sick and tired of looking at that face!" He raged as he again broke the surface and this time cut loose with the full power of the Abyss's weapons.

Shinn cut the thrusters entirely, and the Impulse fell into the water, the shots from the Abyss passing harmlessly overhead. Then as he ignited his thrusters again and broke the surface he found the Abyss charging, its beam lance held for a diagonal strike across the cockpit. Shinn parried the attack with the Blast Impulse's own beam javelin, then lashed out with a hard kick that threw the Abyss off-balance, sending it crashing back into the water.

Above, Athrun had shaken off the Chaos, but he found himself attacked by three Murasames. Using the Saviour's advantage in maneuverability - especially in mobile suit mode, as the Murasame were attacking him while in flight mode - he dodged the attacks and countered, neatly clipping both the wings of one of them with the Saviour's Super Fortis beam guns. The second switched to mobile suit mode and drew the Murasame's beam saber, but Athrun preempted the attack, stripping it of both its arms with two well-placed shots from the beam rifle.

Then he switched to the beam saber, slicing off the arm and wing of the last one as it prepared to attack. For a moment, as he did so he thought of his discussion with Kira.  
>He shook his head. <em>'Again, I don't have a choice. Kira...'<br>_Turning his attention back to the battle, Athrun found that another Murasame was attacking him from behind, and as he evaded that attack the Chaos moved in again and struck from in front of him.

"Hey, don't daydream now, red boy." Lukas commented. "Now just hold still so I can kill you!" Then he fired the Chaos's linear cannons and beam cannon, along with the beam guns from its four gunbarrels.  
>Swearing under his breath, Athrun switched to mobile suit mode and dodged or blocked the attacks, slipping out of the line of fire of the Murasame behind.<br>Then he counterattacked, snapping off a shot aimed at each one. The Chaos dodged the attack. The Murasame was not so fortunate, and the shot caught it cleanly in the main body, destroying it.

As the Chaos, Abyss and the two machines from the 501st kept the _Minerva_'s mobile suits occupied, the _Jones_ had also launched its remaining mobile suits, a team of four Jet Dagger-Ls carrying heavy anti-ship missiles. They moved in towards the _Minerva_ and fired their missiles, but the ship countered with its CIWS, taking out the handful of projectiles and one of the Daggers. Lunamaria turned her attention to the incoming Daggers and fired the ZAKU's "Orthros" cannon, taking out a second even as Arthur ordered a counterattack. A barrage of Dispar anti-air missiles shot towards the remaining two Daggers, and the mobile suits went down.  
>At the same time, the <em>Minerva<em>'s own considerable weapons were targeting the enemy ships. Firing the bow Isoldes, one shot hit the side of one Aegis-class escort ship.

"Missile launchers on the _Sokowatatsumi_ have been destroyed!" The crew reported on the bridge of the _Takemikazuchi_. "The _Kuramitsuha_ is moving to the front. Target is changing course to 2400."

-"Come on!" Yuna said irritably. "Have our ships move in closer! We've got to keep the pressure on them!"

-"That is out of the question." Todaka replied firmly. "The _Minerva_ still has full use of her weapons, so we can't move too hastily. Remember, they have the ability to take out any one of our ships in a single shot." As if to illustrate the point, the sensors suddenly reported torpedoes in the water. The _Minerva_, having altered its trajectory, had fired two of its big "Wolfram" M25 torpedoes, which when they struck ripped open the hulls of two of the Alliance's four remaining escort ships. The two ships began to sink, and a follow-up strike from the _Minerva_'s powerful cannons caused significant damage to a third vessel.

-"What are the Murasame teams doing? What's taking them so long?" Yuna asked impatiently.

-"This isn't some strategy game, Lord Yuna. A real battle is not as easy as you seem to think!" Todaka retorted, momentarily losing his composure. Meanwhile another team of Murasames moved in to strike, ignoring the mobile suits and targeting the _Minerva_ directly.

"Twelve Murasames, incoming from starboard astern!" Abby reported, communicating the news simultaneously to the mobile suits as well as to Arthur on the bridge.

-"Don't let them lock on! Shoot them down!" Arthur ordered. The ship's CIWS sprang into action, as did the stern-mounted Isolde triple cannon.

At the same time, shaking loose his opponent Yzak turned his attention to the incoming mobile suits. The Jet Windam attempted to follow, but a barrage from the Impulse below forced it to break off.  
>Accelerating, Yzak took the GOUF's anti-air gunlauncher and fired, even as from the deck below Lunamaria unleashed a barrage from the Gunner ZAKU's single missile launcher. Four of the Murasames went down. The remaining eight launched their missiles and broke off the attack. More than half the missiles struck the ship, causing significant damage to its hull.<p>

"You're not getting another hit like that." Lunamaria muttered as she fired, a sustained blast from the "Orthros" cannon that sheared one of the Murasames in two, even as the GOUFs again fired on them from behind and the Saviour, approaching from above, cut them off and fired. Half the remaining Murasames went down.

At that moment, the Chaos again moved in, targeting the Saviour with a missile barrage from its gunbarrels, which Athrun was forced to evade.

"Where are the Saviour and Impulse?" Arthur asked, an edge of panic creeping into his voice.

-"They're engaged against the Chaos and Abyss." Abby reported.

-"More incoming enemy units, from starboard ahead!" Bart suddenly reported.

-"Hard to port! Engines to maximum thrust! Launchers 1 through 6, Dispars, fire!"

As the _Minerva_ launched its attack and moved to try and stave off the incoming enemy attack, Lunamaria and Yzak likewise fired at the incoming Murasames. In spite of the attack, a single Murasame managed to slip past the ship's defenses and leveled its rifle at the bridge. Noticing it was empty, the pilot played a hunch and adjusted his aim, targeting a spot on the hull just below where he correctly guessed the bridge to actually be. In the instant before he could fire, a shot from above and to the left obliterated his rifle. Turning, the pilot saw the Freedom rush past him and, saber drawn, cut down his two surviving teammates, severing their wings and forcing them down.

"DAMN IT! Them again!" Yzak spat as he recognized the Freedom and, behind it, the _Archangel_. Airborne beside it was the Aile Strike, along with a single Murasame.

In the Impulse's cockpit, Shinn recognized them as well.  
>"They're doing it again." He said, and he felt his anger rising again as he remembered the battle in the Aegean, and how their interference had cost Rey his life. "Why do they always have to interfere?"<p>

Turning towards the incoming ship, he targeted the Freedom and opened fire, unleashing a barrage of missiles from the Blast Impulse's two quadruple missile launchers. Kira countered, shooting down the missiles with the Freedom's CIWS and, drawing his beam saber, charged the Impulse.

"I've had enough of you!" Shinn yelled angrily as he fired the Impulse's Kerberos cannons at the Freedom.  
>As it had in Orb, he suddenly felt his awareness of the battlefield expand. His perceptions were increased exponentially, and it seemed that he could tell a few seconds ahead of time what his enemy's next move would be. When the Freedom struck, he knew where it was aiming, and he shifted the Impulse's position slightly, so that the saber blade, which should have decapitated the Impulse, missed by a scant few feet. he countered instantly with the Impulse's beam javelin, and the Freedom pulled back upwards, narrowly avoiding the attack.<p>

"Kira, stop it!" Athrun exclaimed as the Saviour charged towards the Freedom, its own saber drawn. The Saviour and the Freedom struck simultaneously, each one blocking the other's attack with his shield. "I told you to stop this!" Athrun yelled, "You should have gone back to Orb!"

Pressing the attack, Athrun was pushing the Freedom back as Kira, unable to find an opening in which to strike, was forced to defend. Of course, in close-range combat Athrun had always been the more skilled pilot, and they both knew it.  
>"Stay out of this, Kira! All you're doing by interfering is making things worse!" Athrun exclaimed, as the Freedom narrowly dodged his strike.<br>Suddenly, alarms rang in both cockpits as the Chaos attacked.

"Well if that's how it is, I'm taking you both out." Lukas stated as he opened fire with the Chaos's gunbarrels and multiphase beam cannon.

The Freedom and Saviour both slipped back out of the line of fire, and Lukas recalled his gunbarrels. He slipped past them and as he turned to strike again, found the Freedom ready to attack.

"Nope. That's not going to work." Lukas quipped, and he fired the Chaos's multiphase beam cannon. Even at such close range, the Freedom's superior speed allowed Kira to slip above the enemy mobile armor's line of fire.

However, Lukas had for a brief instant left himself open to attack, and Athrun took full advantage of the opening. Striking from the side, he severed both the Chaos's right gunbarrels along with its linear cannon with the beam saber, while a followup strike from the Saviour's powerful cannons struck a crippling blow to the mobile armor's main body.  
>The Chaos began to fall, landing hard in the ocean below.<p>

Meanwhile, Yzak opened up a communication from the GOUF Ignited's cockpit to the _Minerva_'s bridge.  
>"Captain?" Arthur asked.<p>

-"Even though that ship may claim to have no hostile intentions towards us, their attack against us in the last battle caused extensive damage. We are therefore to consider the _Archangel_ hostile, and act accordingly."

-"Yes, sir!" replied Arthur, and the acknowledgement was repeated by the rest of the bridge crew.

Shinn had once again found himself under attack by the Abyss, and was still engaging the enemy amphibious machine when he detected the Freedom approaching from behind. Before he could turn to face the attacker however, a three-shot volley from the Saviour forced Kira to break off, and the red mobile suit inserted itself between the Impulse and its intended target.

"Athrun." Kira said, still on a certain level wondering why they had to be enemies again. The same question was weighing on Athrun's mind too, but he knew the reason why mattered little at the moment. Athrun glanced for a split second at his monitor, and was struck by how low his battery level had fallen. He made a mental note to carefully watch his energy consumption even as he moved in towards the Freedom.  
>-"That's enough, Kira!" He said, and once again engaged the Freedom directly.<p>

Still focused on the Freedom, Shinn suddenly heard alarms ring in his cockpit as once again, the Abyss moved to strike.  
>-"What are you looking at, you bastard?" Auel yelled as the Abyss shot from the water once more and opened fire, bringing its full firepower to bear on the Impulse. At this range, he knew he could not dodge the attack completely, so he turned to present the Impulse's back to the Abyss, and ejected the Blast Silhouette even as he pushed the throttle to the stops, igniting the Impulse's single back-mounted thruster as he did so.<p>

The Blast Silhouette exploded, the blast shoving the Impulse forward - exactly as he'd counted on. Twisting around, he counterattacked, and with a scream of rage threw the beam javelin he still held directly at the Abyss.  
>"What?" Auel exclaimed as alarms rang in his cockpit. But by the time he realized what had happened, the thrown weapon struck its target, piercing through the Abyss's cockpit block and cutting him in half.<br>Both machines hit the water, and the Abyss's cockpit began to flood as it sank. Then it exploded.

"We've lost Auel, too." Captain McCaffrey commented grimly as he saw the surface disturbance caused by the Abyss's explosion at the same moment as the machine's signal was lost. He shook his head. "How's the Chaos's retrieval?"

-"Complete, sir." one of the ship's crew replied. "Medical teams are standing by on deck number eight, and a rescue chopper is ready for takeoff."

-"Send it to the Abyss's last known coordinates." McCaffrey ordered, although he privately felt there was little hope of recovering the Abyss or its pilot. The thought saddened him, especially so soon after Stella's disappearance.

In spite of its comparatively low thrust, the Impulse began to rise quickly from the water, and Shinn contacted the _Minerva_.  
>"<em>Minerva<em>!" he barked on the radio. "Send out the Force Silhouette, and prepare the deuterion beam system!"

-"Roger!" Abby replied. The Impulse rose from the water, as the preparations began to deploy the Force Silhouette and send it out to the Impulse. In her Aile Windam's cockpit, Mudie noticed the Force Silhouette Flyer as it took off, and turned towards it to attack.  
>"I don't know what that is, but I'm taking it out!" She commented.<br>However, just as she was about to shoot Yzak attacked, firing the gun launcher at the Windam.

-"Oh no you don't!" He snapped, and as Mudie, forced to evade, backed off Yzak fired another volley at the black Windam IWSP in case it too tried to attack the Flyer.  
>Sven had in fact been thinking of doing precisely that, but he easily dodged the attack from the GOUF as well as a subsequent shot from the ZAKU below.<p>

The Silhouette Flyer reached the Impulse unharmed, and Shinn engaged the docking procedure. The instant the Force Silhouette docked, the Impulse's VPS automatically calibrated itself accordingly and the machine changed from green-black to the usual blue.  
>Then the Deuterion beam activated, recharging the Impulse's severely depleted battery.<br>Immediately turning his attention to the two black Alliance mobile suits, he opened fire with the Impulse's beam rifle as the Force Impulse shot upwards towards them.

Sven's Windam IWSP dodged the incoming Impulse's attack easily, as did Mudie in the Aile Windam. Both of them counterattacked immediately, but Shinn saw the attacks coming and brought the Impulse's shield to bear, blocking the attack from the Windam IWSP's beam cannons even as he dodged the other's carbine shots. Yzak took advantage of the opportunity to attack as well. Caught in the crossfire, Mudie was able to evade the attacks, but she lost her machine's arm, and with it the beam carbine.

-"SHIT! Not again!" she swore.

-"Fall back, Mudie." Sven ordered flatly from the Windam IWSP. "It's too dangerous with your Windam damaged like this."

-"The hell it is." She retorted and fired her remaining missiles. Jettisoning the shield, she drew her beam saber and shot towards the Impulse, aiming to carve open its cockpit. Shinn sidestepped the attack and lashed out, kicking the Windam aside. Thrown off-balance, Mudie was unable to completely avoid a follow-up shot from the Impulse, which though it missed its intended target - the Windam's cockpit - it did hit the remaining arm, neatly clipping it off.

-"I said fall back." Sven reiterated as he turned the Windam's 30mm gatling gun on the GOUF at the same time as he targeted the Impulse with his beam rifle and beam cannons. Yzak evaded the attack, while Shinn brought the Impulse's shield to bear, blocking the shots.

At that moment, Lunamaria fired at them from below, and Sven only narrowly avoided the attack. Rejoining Mudie, he fired a volley intended to prevent pursuit, while both machines began to retreat.

"This kid..." Sven mumbled as the two of them retreated, looking down at the Impulse. "He's good."  
>Although the Alliance forces attacking the <em>Minerva<em> were beaten back, the same could not be said for the Orb fleet, as another formation of Murasames were closing in.

"All members of the Orb forces are to attack the _Minerva_!" the order, coming from the _Jones_, sounded across the radio, "I repeat, all Orb forces attack the _Minerva_!"

As the Orb ships unleashed a barrage of missiles and cannonfire at the ship, the mobile suits themselves moved in for a bombing run on the target.  
>The Impulse and the GOUF Igniteds immediately moved to intercept, taking down two of the approaching Murasames before they'd even had time to fire their missiles. The others launched their machines' four "Hayate" missiles at the ship, although Lunamaria immediately fired from the deck, taking down an additional machine as the <em>Minerva<em>'s CIWS intercepted the missiles.

"Tristans, FIRE!" Arthur ordered from the _Minerva_'s bridge, and the three powerful dual beam cannons blasted into the formation, which was forced to scatter in order to avoid the incoming shots. Reforming, the remaining Murasames moved in and dove in for another run, in spite of fire from the _Minerva_.

"Come and get it!" Lunamaria raged as she aimed and fired at the incoming formation. This time however the Orb pilots were ready, and the Murasames shifted out of the trajectory of her blast before firing the anti-ship missiles each carried on the hardpoints on its wings.

Though many of them were intercepted by the _Minerva_'s CIWS and suppressive fire from the mobile suits defending the ship, some of them got through, and one struck the starboard deck, atop which Lunamaria's ZAKU stood. She let out a scream as her machine fell, critically damaged by the impact.

-"Lunamaria!" Shinn exclaimed as he saw what happened. "You BASTARDS!" He roared as he accelerated, blasting into the formation and destroying first one, then a second Murasame. Yzak likewise opened fire, shredding another Murasame, leaving only one remaining.

"Maximum thrust, hard to port!" Arthur ordered as the last Murasame charged in, firing its rifle and beam cannon at the ship. Even as the ship moved to evade, the Murasame pilot accelerated, throwing his Murasame into the bow-mounted Isolde and destroying it.

"Damn...that bastard trashed the Isolde!" Yzak raged. On the bridge, Arthur was equally appalled.  
>"Damage report?" He asked.<p>

"Isolde destroyed. Starboard catapult badly damaged, starboard Tristan completely inoperational." Bart reported reported. "We have a fire onboard. CIWS are operating at 40%, and the ZAKU is critically damaged. They're bringing it in now."

-"Send damage control and fire crews. Put out those fires!" Arthur ordered frantically.

-"Yes, sir." Abby replied, and relayed his orders accordingly. At that moment, another communication came in from Shinn.

-"_Minerva_, is the central catapult still operational?"

-"It is." Abby replied.

-"Then send out the Sword Silhouette." Shinn demanded. "I'm taking out their ships!"

On the bridge of the _Takemikazuchi_ meanwhile, Yuna was still watching the battle from his seat near the back of the bridge.  
>"We're almost there - finish it off!" he exclaimed. "As long as we destroy the <em>Minerva<em>..."  
>Next to him, Todaka gritted his teeth, his fists clenched as he thought of the already catastrophic losses they had suffered.<p>

Meanwhile, Lukas ordered the Alliance ships to close in and renew their attacks, seeing that the _Minerva_ was nearly finished. The _Archangel_ had been blocking the Orb fleet's movements, using its Valiant railguns and Gottfried beam cannons to cut them off whenever they tried coming in closer. However, the Orb ships attacked the ship directly in response, forcing the _Archangel_ to back off.  
>Supplemented by Juri's Buster firing from the deck, the Aile Strike and Andrew Waltfeld's Murasame provided additional support fire, either damaging any enemy machines that closed in or forcing them to break off the attacks.<br>Still, his own ships were so positioned that the _Archangel_ could not attack them directly - the _Minerva_ stood in its way.

"All right. We'll move forward too." Todaka said as he saw the Alliance ships closing in.

-"But why?...Do we have to?" Yuna stammered.

-"We have to destroy the _Minerva_, right? Then let's go do it." Todaka replied evenly before turning back to his crew. "Engines to maximum!"

"Sir, the enemy ships are closing in!" Bart reported.

"Load Wolfram in one and two. Fire three and four." Arthur ordered, and immediately two torpedoes launched from the bow-mounted tubes, followed a few minutes later by two more. The Alliance ships moved to evade, but the salvos still took out two of them, leaving the _Jones_ with only two Frasier-class ships escorting it. Lukas ordered the ships to halt their advance and counterattacked, but even as damaged as it was, the _Minerva_ still outgunned them, and it fired its remaining Tristans at the ships.

Shinn had jettisoned the Force Silhouette as the Sword Silhouette was launched. As the Force Silhouette Flyer headed back towards the ship, the Impulse's own systems locked onto the Sword Silhouette, which moved in and docked. For the second time the Impulse's VPS automatically adjusted to optimum settings for its current equipment, this time switching from blue to blood red. Increasing thrust, Shinn threw the Impulse forward and landed atop the nearest Orb ship, an Aegis-class.

"TAKE THIS!" He yelled as he drew the twin Excalibur anti-ship swords and slammed them deep into the ship's hull, then withdrew them and with another attack hacked the blades across the ship's bridge. Then he leaped off, landing atop a Kuraomikami-class.

At that moment, two Murasames attacked from above. Blocking the strike with the Impulse's shield, Shinn stowed the Excaliburs and drew a beam boomerang, which he threw at them. The two Murasames dodged the attack, but Shinn followed up immediately, firing the beam rifle at both Murasames, neatly piercing the cockpits of both.

Meanwhile, Athrun was still dueling against Kira.  
>"The Earth Forces are the ones who set this up!" He said angrily as their sabers clashed again. "Are you saying you want them to destroy the <em>Minerva<em>? Because that's how it looks from here!"

-"You just don't get it!" Kira retorted.

-"Don't get what?" Athrun asked. "You say you don't want to fight, yet here you are!" He aimed another slash at the Freedom, which Kira parried.

-"I know what you're saying. But are you telling me that this battle, these terrible sacrifices, they can't be helped? If you're saying that, that these battles are somehow the fault of Orb and Cagalli, then you're attacking the very thing we're trying to save!"

-"I'm not saying this is Cagalli's fault, I'm saying it's yours!" Athrun yelled in response.

At that moment, an alarm bell rang in the Saviour's cockpit. Athrun glanced down at the console, but in that instant Kira turned on the Saviour and struck with both beam sabers. As Athrun tried to parry, the first attack severed his machine's arms, taking with them both the back-mounted weapons units, and with a follow-up strike Kira severed the Saviour in two just below the waist. An explosion tore through the Saviour's lower torso as the crippled machine began to fall, and it slammed into the surface of the water below.

-"Athrun!" Yzak yelled from the GOUF's cockpit as he saw the Saviour's destruction. Meanwhile on the _Minerva_, Abby likewise reported that the Saviour had been taken out.

-"The Saviour...destroyed." Arthur mumbled when he heard the news. This was bad, because it meant they only had four operational mobile suits still in combat, and there were still numerous enemy units to contend with.

-"Sir, the Orb Forces carrier is approaching." Bart reported. "12 o'clock, distance 2000. They're firing missiles!"

-"Evade and intercept them!" Arthur replied, and the ship's remaining CIWS moved into action at the same time as a volley of Dispars were launched to intercept the remaining missiles, even while the ship began to move.

The attack foiled, the _Minerva_ counterattacked with the portside Tristan, a blow that struck the _Takemikazuchi_ on its starboard side, significantly damaging it.

Meanwhile Shinn, having destroyed the Kuraomikami-class, leaped off its deck and landed atop the sole remaining escort ship, another Aegis-class. Two Astrays moved in to attack the Impulse. Dodging their attacks, he leaped upwards and countered with the Excaliburs, splitting one of them in two. The second Astray fired on the Impulse with its beam rifle, but Shinn blocked the shot and cut it in half as well. Landing on the ship's stern deck, he slammed the Excaliburs deep into it and hacked it apart, then sliced open the back of its tower as it began to sink by the stern.

On the bridge of the _Takemikazuchi_, Colonel Todaka watched horrified as his ships were exterminated one by one, with the same ruthlessness that had annihilated four Earth Forces ships, including one carrier, outside Orb only a short time previously.

He knew what was next, as the Impulse landed on the _Takemikazuchi's_ deck. He knew he was looking at his own death, and was determined to save as many of his men as he could.

"All hands, abandon ship." He ordered. The ship's remaining mobile suits - a handful of Astrays and two Murasames - plus additional mobile suits from two escort ships that remained to the rear behind the carrier moved in to attack the Impulse.

At that moment, a communication came through to the bridge.  
>"Sir, it's from the homeland!" Said the radio operator.<p>

-"Put it through." Todaka ordered, and the operator complied.

"NDC-01 _Takemikazuchi_, do you read?" Todaka recognized the voice he heard, and at last he saw a sliver of hope.

"Lady Cagalli!" He replied. "_Takemikazuchi_ here, this is Todaka."

-"Colonel Todaka. I am ordering you to cease your attack and return to Orb immediately."

-"C...Cagalli!" Yuna replied, "How...wonderful to hear from you! I was so worried..."

-"SHUT UP!" Cagalli replied angrily. "You're lucky I don't have you arrested for treason, Yuna!" Cowed, Yuna did not reply as Cagalli again addressed Todaka. "I repeat. Colonel Todaka, you are hereby ordered to cease combat immediately!"

-"Yes, ma'am!"

Attacked by the Orb mobile suits, Shinn stowed the Excaliburs and switched to the beam rifle, gunning down one of them as it came near. Stowing the rifle, he moved forward, drawing both the Excaliburs and preparing to hack apart its bridge, when something shot upwards just past him. It took him a second to realize it was a signal flare.

Onboard the _Minerva_, Fafnir missiles had been loaded into the ship's bow tubes and Arthur had been about to give the order to fire on the Orb carrier, when they too saw the flare go up, and immediately recognized its significance.

"Hold fire! Stand down one and two!" Arthur ordered. "That signal's a retreat flare!"

A moment later, they all heard a voice, which they realized was an open-channel broadcast from the Orb carrier, apparently by the ship's commanding officer.

"All Orb forces, this is Colonel Fumihiko Todaka. By direct instruction of our Chief Representative, I am hereby ordering all Orb forces to cease combat operations immediately and prepare to return to the homeland."

_'I know that voice!'_ Shinn suddenly realized, and then he recognized the name, as a memory floated back to his mind. It had been the day of the attack, the day his parents were murdered. There had been an Orb officer, a Major.

_"You made it. That's something to be thankful for. And I'm sure that your family would understand that...I think they are at peace, knowing that at least, you are safe."_

He dimly remembered the words, but it was the man who had spoken them he recalled most distinctly. He had taken him in when he had no one left, and after a few months, had arranged for him to go, alone, to the PLANTs.

And he had nearly killed him.

Suddenly, it was over. There were no enemies, no battle. None of that mattered anymore. He stowed his blades and opened a communication to the Orb ship. Then he removed his helmet.

"It's been four years, Shinn." Colonel Todaka said after a while, getting over the sudden surprise of the unexpected encounter as he recognized the young man he saw on the ship's communications screen, that sad, quiet boy from long ago. "I've often thought about you." Shinn did not reply, so Todaka continued. "So, you joined ZAFT?"

-"I did." He said. "I felt that it was the best thing for me to do...the PLANTs are my home now. And I decided that I wanted to fight, to make sure that what happened never happened again."

Todaka nodded. "It's good that you have something to protect." He said, and at his words Shinn thought not of the PLANTs, but of Stella. And he knew at that instant that no matter what, he wanted to protect her. "There are things in this world that are worth protecting. Even if it means one has to fight for them. That is how I feel about Orb and its ideals."

-"I know." Shinn replied.

-"Hopefully we can meet again someday. Some place other than the battlefield." Todaka said.

-"I think I'd like that." Shinn replied. Then he cut the link and took off.

_'I'm proud of you, kid.'_ Todaka thought and, ignoring Yuna as well as the surprised and confused stares of his crew, began to issue orders for the rescue of their men before they left.

Meanwhile on the _Jones_, Captain McCaffrey knew the battle was over. Without the Orb ships they were down to the _Jones_ itself and one Frasier-class, and they had only one operational mobile suit left.

"I think it's time we retreat." He said, addressing O'Donnell. "This battle is over."  
>O'Donnell, furious, did not reply, and so McCaffrey took it upon himself to make the decision, and the two ships turned back.<p>

Seeing the scene unfold, Kira returned to the _Archangel_, and soon enough they too were underway, disappearing underneath the waves. As he left the Freedom's cockpit, he thought of Athrun's words, and regretted that he had had to fight against him again. And the more he thought about it, the more something bothered him about the way the Saviour had gone down. He had aimed his attacks specifically so as to disable Athrun's machine with minimal damage to the main body - targeting the arms, the back-mounted weapons, and the legs. The memory of that ZAKU he had shot down in their prior engagement floated back to his consciousness, and with it a sudden fear that he might have killed his erstwhile best friend. And doubt again insinuated itself into his mind as he wondered whether Athrun had been right. Had it really been his fault that all this had happened?

He thought of Lacus, and the memory of the murder steeled his resolve.  
>No, he thought. It had been Lacus's murder that had caused all this. And he was determined that whatever Athrun said, he would not trust the PLANTs. If Athrun had chosen to side with them, then it was that decision that had led to this, had forced Kira to defeat him.<br>Still, he regretted it.

**LHM-BB01 ****_Minerva_**

When Shinn returned to the _Minerva_, the atmosphere was somber. Lunamaria wounded, the ZAKU destroyed, the ship severely damaged. And worst of all, the Saviour had been destroyed by the Freedom, and Athrun was critically injured.  
>As he changed out of his flight suit and back into his uniform, he thought of what he had learned, and angrily slammed his locker shut.<p>

_'The Freedom again...first Rey, now Athrun. It's all down to that guy.'_ he thought. He was determined that he would not lose anyone to him again. Taking a deep breath, he left the ready room, as the ship slowly got moving again, its ultimate destination unchanged.


	18. Phase 18: Fleeting Dream

**PHASE 18: Fleeting Dream**

**Kythira, Eurasian Federation  
><strong>**LHM-BB01 Minerva**

Several hours had passed since the Orb fleet's departure and the end of the battle against it and the Alliance, and after recovering its mobile suits - including the remains of the Saviour - the badly-damaged Minerva had taken shelter in a narrow inlet of the small Greek island of Kythira.

Because of its small size and lack of strategic or military value, the Island was largely ignored by the Eurasian Federation government, which made it an ideal hiding place for the ship while they requested supplies from Gibraltar.

Yzak stood on the bridge, where Arthur delivered a report on the damage they had sustained. Because of the damage to the upper part of the superstructure, the bridge had, at Yzak's instruction, remained lowered in its well-protected combat configuration.

"There is substantial damage to most of the hull, sir," Arthur said matter-of-factly, "but the main engines have taken no significant damage. As for the weapons, we've lost the bow Isolde and the starboard Tristan. The central and port Tristans have also been damaged, and seven CIWS turrets are no longer operational."

-"We're in bad shape, all right." Yzak replied, seething with repressed anger. "What about our mobile suits?"

-"The ZAKU Warrior is severely damaged, and the Saviour is irreparable." Arthur answered. "At the moment, that leaves us with only the Impulse and GOUF Igniteds operational."

-"And Athrun?" Yzak replied.

-"He's in medical. It doesn't look good, sir. His injuries are extremely severe. The doctor's doing everything he can, but the sooner we can get to Gibraltar, the better."

-"I'll contact them and request supplies and assistance. We'll need to stay here until then. Keep an eye out for incoming aerial and underwater enemies. I'll leave it to you, Arthur."

-"Yes, sir."

Yzak's next move was to contact Gibraltar. He briefly summarized their situation and location, and ask that they send supplies, stressing that the ship's condition made it imperative that repairs were made before they could continue.

Perhaps because he didn't want to risk his ships, the base commander balked at the request.

"The distance from your position is not that great; I don't see why it would be necessary to go through the trouble, especially as we could do a better job of it here at Gibraltar when you arrive."

-"Oh you don't, do you?" Yzak replied. "Well I think that given I'm the one who's out here on the ship, I've got a better idea of the condition she's in and whether she's able to cross two thousand-odd miles without repairs." The silver-and-gold pin on his lapel gleamed dully in the low light as he spoke.

-"Oh very well then." The commander said reluctantly. "I'll send a couple of ships out with enough supplies to make at least rudimentary repairs - just enough to get you here without incident. We can make more complete repairs once you arrive."

-"That's all I ask." Yzak said by way of thanks, and the line went dead.

That chore accomplished, he left the bridge and headed down to medical. He barely even glanced at the Extended as he entered, and saw that Lunamaria was in medical as well. Injured in the destruction of the ZAKU, she was wearing a cast on one arm and bandages on her head. She appeared to be sleeping, and so Yzak turned to Athrun. Lunamaria's injuries, which included a broken arm and a rather severe concussion, were minor compared to the condition Athrun himself was in. They had recovered him from the Saviour's cockpit after he was shot down, unconscious and critically injured. His wounds had been treated, but he'd lost a lot of blood, and he had yet to regain consciousness.

As he stood there, Heine walked in and looked over at him.

-"He's in rough shape, eh?" the normally jovial FAITH pilot said somberly.

Yzak nodded. "What happened out there?" Heine asked.

-"The Freedom happened." Yzak snapped angrily, though Heine did not mind - he knew that it wasn't him Yzak was angry at - it was the Freedom's pilot, and probably also himself. "I don't know what the hell happened, but he just...blindsided him. Ripped the Saviour apart."

The two men stood silently for a moment. Yzak thought about the chances that Athrun would recover. Right now, they were slim.

-"First Rey, and now this..." Yzak mumbled. "Those bastards..." As he stood there, his thoughts reached farther back, and memories of the losses sustained against the Archangel in the previous war floated back to mind. Nicol, brutally killed by the Strike in an attempt to save Athrun's life. Miguel.

The thought suddenly occurred to Yzak that Miguel had had, he knew, a custom-tuned GINN, which he had been unable to pilot at Heliopolis because it had been damaged in a prior sortie - Like the mobile suits favored by the man who stood beside him, the GINN had been painted a rather striking orange color. Yzak shook his head, dismissing the coincidence.

"Next chance I get...I am going to destroy that fucking ship." Yzak said firmly. "Count on that."

In the hangar meanwhile, Vino and Yolant were looking over at the crippled ZAKU and the dull-grey, shattered remains of what had been a Gundam.

"Man...there is no way we're gonna be able to fix that." the latter commented.

Vino nodded.

-"I hear the Freedom did that." he said. Yolant sighed wearily.

-"I guess even a member of FAITH couldn't stop that one." He said, as they turned their attention to the ZAKU. "We're short on parts, but we might be able to salvage that one at least."

Meanwhile, Aves directed some of his best men to start dismantling the Saviour's remains, with himself leading the effort. He had been watching the battle, and something had seemed strange about it, near the end...he had a strange feeling that something was just off about the way it had been moving. Moreover, he wanted to know why its ejection mechanism, nearly the same as that of the ZAKU, had not functioned.

From another part of the hangar, Shinn glanced over at the wreckage, an inscrutable expression on his face. Then he turned and left the hangar. It was late, and he was exhausted after the battle. He briefly stopped by medical, where he checked on Stella first. Her condition appeared to have stabilized for now, but Shinn knew, as the doctor had told him once previously, that it was only temporary; there was no telling how she might react.

He turned to the other side of the room, where he saw Lunamaria and Athrun. He considered the two of them, the condition they were in because of the battle, and the thought angered him. Especially Athrun's condition.

Shaking his head, Shinn left the medical bay and headed up to his quarters.

The supply ships arrived as promised a couple of days later: Two Vosgolov-class submarines and a Lesseps-class battleship. Originally designed as a land battleship, the Lesseps's scale system - an unusual propulsion system that allowed it to smoothly move through sand or loose soil easily - also enabled the ship to navigate equally well on the water. Sliding into the inlet with the _Minerva_, it began to offload the supplies requested, and repairs were soon underway.

In the hangar, Aves oversaw the loading of the parts they would need to repair the ZAKU. As the loading neared completion and the work on the red mobile suit began, Aves left the hangar and headed up to the bridge.

"You're sure about this?" Yzak asked Aves when the latter found him and explained what they'd discovered. The chief mechanic nodded.

-"Yes, sir. Given the way in which it was taken out, it's nearly impossible for internal damage of this nature to have taken place as the result of the Saviour's destruction. The only possible conclusion is that some other factor caused it. This is also the reason why the escape pod failed to function - it was damaged and rendered inoperable in the explosion."

-"I suspect that's also the reason the pilot was so badly injured." Yzak replied darkly, to which Aves nodded. "But how..." The question died unasked as Yzak realized the answer. There was only one possibility: While the machine was being repaired in Çanakkale. The real question to ask was _why_. And to that, Yzak as yet had no answer.

Meanwhile, Shinn was in the ship's medical bay again. He'd asked about Athrun when he arrived, and the doctor had told him that he was stable, but there was as yet no sign of improvement, and he still hadn't regained consciousness.

Glancing at the prone figure of the older man, Shinn then turned away and sat down next to Stella. She was asleep at the moment, but as he looked at her he thought that she was extremely pale, and there were dark circles under her eyes. She wasn't getting better.

After a while she stirred, and she started shaking.

"Stella? What's wrong - are you okay?" He asked worriedly. She turned her head at the sound of his voice, and her eyes opened slowly.

-"You...you saved Stella. You said...you'd protect me." She said, her voice barely rising above a whisper.

-"That's right, I did." He replied. Suddenly, she cried out, apparently in pain.

-"Stella!" Shinn exclaimed. He looked around for the doctor, who saw what was happening and rushed over, pushing him aside to get to her.

In the ship's mess, Lunamaria - her arm still in a sling, but otherwise doing well - was discussing the recent battle with Abby, Vino, and Yolant.

"Man, to think the Saviour would be trashed this badly," Luna commented, "It's pretty unbelievable."

-"Yeah," Vino replied, "I still can't believe it went down so easily. Still..."

-"It's kind of hard to accept that a member of FAITH would lose so badly, but then again it was the Freedom - that thing's one of the most powerful mobile suits ever, after all." Yolant replied.

-"I don't think we would have made it out if it wasn't for Shinn. Taking out those enemy ships like that - and he was about to destroy their carrier, too." Abby replied.

-"It's just like against that Alliance fleet when we were in Orb, you remember?" Vino piped up. They all nodded - everyone could remember the apparent ease with which Shinn had eliminated that mobile armor, along with those Alliance ships.

-"He's been utterly amazing, lately." Abby commented. "And the way he's always yelling commands, like when he orders the launch of one of the Silhouette flyers."

-"Yeah," Luna assented, "He's like some kind of super ace or something. It's pretty incredible."

At that moment, Shinn himself entered.

-"Shinn!" Luna exclaimed as she saw him. She thought he looked worried about something, and she wondered if he'd been visiting that girl again. None of them had any idea why he'd even brought her onboard, but they didn't ask.

-"You all right?" Shinn asked as he walked in, addressing Luna.

-"Yeah. They did a real number on me, but I'm fine. What about Athrun - d'you know how he's doing?"

-"Still the same." Shinn said flatly as he got himself a drink. "Stable, but still unconscious."

-"I see." Luna answered.

-"The Freedom trashed him pretty bad - took him apart. It's weird - why is someone like him a member of FAITH? He doesn't seem to be that strong." Shinn said. He shrugged, before adding "Maybe it's because he used to be stronger, once." He added dismissively, then left.

As was his habit, Shinn went out to the _Minerva_'s rear deck. The sun was setting, and as he stood there and thought about what had been happening, he heard the door open. Glancing over his shoulder, he recognized Heine.

"Hey Shinn." Heine said as he limped over, still leaning on a crutch. Most of his injuries were healed, except for his leg. He moved towards the railing.

-"What is it?"

-"I could ask you that. Something on your mind?" The older man replied. Shinn nodded.

-"Just thinking about the battle." he said vaguely, though Heine sensed an undercurrent of anger in his tone.

-"I see. You're upset - the Orb fleet and the Alliance hit us pretty hard. It must be especially difficult for you; first Rey, and now Athrun."

Shinn scoffed at the mention of Athrun. Over the months they'd known each other, Shinn had come to respect Athrun, who had seemingly acted as a kind of mentor for him. And yet, his weakness in that battle...

"He acts like a big shot, but that's all it is, really - just an act." He said dismissively. "And Orb...all that crap about their so-called ideals, and yet they're still dogs of the Alliance. It's pathetic."

-"Now, that's not fair." Heine admonished. "I know you lost your family during the last war, but it's no reason to blame Representative Athha for a mistake her father made years ago. After all, she lost her family in that war too."

-"That sounds like the sort of thing Athrun would say." Shinn replied with a pained sort of smile. Then he remembered that Athrun had indeed said something to that effect once.

-"And he'd be right. Besides, remember what the Orb commander said in the battle: It was by her order that they withdrew."

-"That's true." Shinn agreed reluctantly. "To be honest, I wouldn't have believed it of her."

-"I on the other hand was not surprised at all. It's the same with Athrun - he's not weak by any means. He's just conflicted about what to do about the current situation."

Shinn was skeptical about that. On the one hand, he'd gotten a feeling that for all his calm demeanor, Athrun had great strength. If the Chaos had been anything to go by, Athrun was certainly not weak. The more he thought about it, the more Heine's statement seemed correct. It seemed stupid to Shinn, and he said as much.

-"He needs to get his act together. The Earth Forces...no, the Atlantic Federation are the ones responsible for all of this. I would've thought he realized that - that's why he returned to ZAFT."

For a few moments, the two men remained silent. Heine looked curiously at Shinn for a moment as the younger pilot seemed to become pensive.

-"The doc was telling me you're spending a lot of time in medical." Heine began. "You visiting that girl?"

-"Stella." Shinn replied absently.

-"Stella, right." Heine said slowly, before continuing. "You're worried about her."

-"I just..." Shinn started to say, but Heine interrupted with another question.

-"You love her, don't you?"

The question surprised Shinn, and he looked at the other pilot. He'd never really thought much about it, but at the same time, he reflected on everything that had happened since he had met her, the way she made him feel, and he knew deep in his heart that there was no other word for it.

He nodded.

_'I had guessed as much.'_ Heine thought. It made little sense to him, but the evidence was there, and Shinn himself confirmed it. "Well listen. I know the Doc is doing everything he can, and when we get to Gibraltar I'm sure they'll have even better-equipped facilities. Just don't do anything rash, okay?"

Some time later, Shinn was on his way up to his quarters, when as he passed by the hallway that led down to the medical bay he overheard Yzak speaking.

"I see," the Captain was saying, "and there's no way we can reverse it?"

-"Unfortunately not. At this point, it's only a matter of time." Shinn stopped, as he had recognized the voice as belonging to the doctor. He stopped and listened as the man continued. "I'd like nothing more than to hand the girl over alive once we reach Gibraltar, but if that's not possible, then I'd recommend against keeping her on life support any longer - it could make it more difficult to obtain accurate data from an autopsy."

What he heard angered Shinn, as it seemed to him that the doctor was talking about Stella as if she wasn't even human - just some laboratory experiment, like the Alliance themselves would. With some difficulty, he stopped himself from lashing out and simply stayed out of sight, listening as the Captain replied.

-"We already have more than enough tissue samples gathered from the corpses we found at the lab - what the Council wants is a living Extended. Our orders from Headquarters are to hand her over alive - Keep her on life support until we reach Gibraltar." Yzak said.

-"I understand - I'll continue her present course of treatment."

-"Very good, thank you." Yzak replied, and he started to leave when he turned back to the doctor. "Hey, doctor. One other thing: Does Shinn still come to see her?"

-"Yes, quite often. For the life of me I can't understand why, though."

-"Is that so?" Yzak replied "Well, I don't think it's necessary for him to know this. Just do what you can to keep her alive."

-"Right. I'll do what I can to keep her stable as long as possible." The doctor replied.

Yzak walked away, thinking about the doctor's report. The entire conversation left a bad taste in his mouth. He found it repulsive that the Alliance could even have done something like this to someone so young - he guessed her to be no older than sixteen or seventeen - and it bothered him that there was apparently little they could do about it. Worse yet, he was worried that if Shinn knew, he might try something stupid. Irritated, he headed up to the bridge, while Shinn waited for a moment to make sure the doctor had returned to medical before running up to his quarters.

Several hours later, Shinn returned to medical. The door slid open, and he saw that the doctor was nowhere to be seen - just a single nurse on duty. He ran in and, as she turned around, took her out with a blow to the stomach that knocked her unconscious. He turned to Stella, and softly called her name, trying to wake her. She opened her eyes, smiling weakly when she saw him.

"Shinn?" she asked as she looked at him.

-"Let's go. I'm going to keep my promise to you." He answered. "I'll protect you, Stella."

He unfastened the straps that held her in place and, taking her in his arms, carried her out of the medical bay.

This late at night, the hallways were deserted; almost everyone was asleep. Even in the hangar, only a minimal guard was posted. Still, Shinn moved cautiously as he headed down to the lift that would take him to the hangar. He knew a spare Core Splendor was loaded in the central catapult; his plan was to take it and get Stella out. Based on its course when it had left, the Jones had to have moored in Iraklio, in nearby Crete. He'd carefully checked and made sure before setting his plan into motion.

He hated the idea of returning Stella to them, but he refused to sit by and let her die. Besides, judging from what he'd heard, the Council were no better. Reaching the hangar, he told Stella to wait for a moment, then he spotted the guard. Using the wreckage of the Saviour for cover, he slipped down to him, and slammed him in the back of the neck. Out cold, the guard collapsed, falling heavily to the ground.

Retrieving Stella, he made his way over to the central catapult. He'd gotten the Core Splendor's canopy opened and was lowering her carefully into the cockpit when he heard a voice.

"HEY YOU! What do you think you're doing over there?"

_'Shit. A second guard.'_ Shinn thought. As the guard ran towards him, rifle held at the ready, Shinn stepped towards him. Then he lunged slightly to the side and ran towards him. In the couple of instants it took the guard to adjust the rifle, Shinn had reached him. and took him down with a vicious right cross to the face.

After checking that the coast was clear, he opened the catapult and entered the Core Splendor's cockpit himself.

In medical, the doctor suddenly entered to find the duty nurse unconscious and the bed that had held the Extended empty. But by the time he sounded the alarm and the bridge was alerted, the Core Splendor was airborne.

"What the hell's going on?" Yzak demanded. "What's the emergency?"

-"Medical bay reports the Extended is missing!" Bart replied.

-"She's WHAT?!"

-"Captain!" Abby suddenly reported. "The spare Core Splendor just launched!"

-"Did she...no. From what the doc told me she's in no condition to even walk, much less hijack the Core Splendor...then that means..."

-"It's Shinn." Heine simply said. He sounded disappointed, but not surprised.

-"WHAT?!" Yzak roared. "He's deserting now?"

-"Oh, no." Heine said. "If he was deserting, he would have taken the Impulse, not the spare Core Splendor. I think we can be pretty certain he'll be back."

-"Good." Yzak fumed. "Because when that moron gets back, I'm gonna kill him."

"Okay...location of the Earth Forces ship. Coordinates...good. Now then." Shinn muttered in the Core Splendor's cockpit, then he flipped a switch that began broadcasting the Gaia's IFF code. Stella stirred. "Just hang on a little longer, okay?" He said, focusing on maintaining his course.

Onboard the _Jones_, the night watch was on duty when the ship's sensors detected the transmission. Immediately, Captain McCaffrey and O'Donnell were summoned to the bridge.

"Gaia's IFF code? and it's airborne? What the hell's going on?" Lukas demanded.

-"I don't know sir. But someone's broadcasting it trying to contact us. And they're transmitting a set of coordinates." The officer at the sensor console replied, and displayed the coordinates on the screen.

-"Hmm...that's about a hundred kilometers from here. Try responding."

When they did so, a new message was transmitted.

"To Lukas. Stella's waiting. Come alone..." The Commander read. "The problem is, none of our mobile suits are ready to sortie at the moment." Lukas commented. "I'll take a chopper."

-"Take Kinney with you." McCaffrey stated. "If it really is Stella, then after all this time she's going to be in bad shape. No point bringing her back dead. I'll have Holcroft's and Cal Bayan's machines prepped and standing by if things go south."

-"Fair enough." Lukas replied. Soon enough, launch preparations were underway for both of the Windams, while a helicopter, piloted by Lukas and carrying Doctor Kinney and emergency medical equipment, took off.  
>As the helicopter neared the designated point, Lukas spotted a tiny fighter sitting among the deserted ruins, and guessed this aircraft was the one that had transmitted the signal. He noticed its canopy was open, but could not see inside in the darkness.<p>

In the cabin, Doctor Kinney had seen it too. As soon as the helicopter touched down, she was out the door and running towards it, but then she stopped dead in her tracks. In the fighter's cockpit, she saw a young man, dark-haired and pale, in a wine-red uniform. In his arms, he held Stella, who appeared to be in extremely bad shape, with a bandage around her head and wearing a loose-fitting hospital gown. Of more concern was the heavy semi-automatic pistol in his hand, which was aimed squarely at her.

-"Who are you?" he asked harshly.

-"I'm Doctor Kinney." she said, without moving or taking her eyes off the muzzle of the gun. "Lukas O'Donnell brought me here to take care of her."

Behind her, Shinn saw the man Lukas, wearing a black-and-grey uniform, with his hand hovering near a holstered sidearm at his waist.  
>Focusing on the woman, he glared at her for a moment, then lowered his weapon. There was something about her that convinced Shinn that she was telling the truth. Something about her eyes, the way her gaze shifted to Stella as she spoke.<p>

"She's dying. I'm bringing her back because I don't want her to die. You'll make sure she survives?" he asked. Kinney nodded. Shinn stood, stepping down from the Core Splendor with Stella in his arms.

"Look, Stella. Doctor Kinney's here - and Lukas, too." Shinn said to Stella.

-"L...Lukas?"

-"That's right." He said softly. O'Donnell was still out of earshot, but Kinney heard the way he spoke to her, and it surprised her. There was a warmth, a kindness in his tone that did not match the hard look that had been in his eyes before. Shinn stepped down from the fighter's wing, but moved no further.

-"I want you to promise me something." Shinn said.

-"Yes?" Kinney replied as O'Donnell stopped, now standing next to and slightly behind her.

-"Promise me that you'll take her away from all this. Away from the war, from death. Take her to some place where she can find the kindness, the warmth she deserves." He said, looking from one to the other. After a second's hesitation, Lukas nodded.

-"I give you my word." Kinney said. "As long as I have anything to say about it, she will never again see a battlefield."

Shinn stepped forward and handed her over to the doctor. As Kinney took her in her arms, something caught her eye. Around his neck, he was wearing something. It took a few seconds for her to recognize what it was: a seashell, identical to the one that even then, Stella wore around her neck. And then she remembered the incident in Bandirma, some weeks earlier.

-"Perhaps a "Thank you" would be appropriate." O'Donnell said.

-"Save it!" Shinn snapped. "Just don't forget what I said."

If there was one thing Kinney prided herself on - and she knew there were few enough things she had done that she could feel proud of - it was that she was a good judge of character. This boy's feelings were genuine, she knew, which was why she had agreed to his request...Just as she knew that O'Donnell, who stood now next to her, was almost certainly never going to let that happen. She turned towards the chopper. After a second, Lukas followed, but Shinn addressed him one last time.

-"If I found out you lied...I'll kill you myself." He threatened, then climbed into the Core Splendor's cockpit. Wiping the tears from his eyes, he started up the Core Splendor's turbines.

_'Don't forget me, Stella.'_ he thought, then the small craft took off, heading back towards the _Minerva_.


	19. Phase 19: Endless Nightmare

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **Right. So here we begin a four-chapter arc marking the next two major divergences from canon, starting with the Destroy Gundam attack. For this arc, I introduce new equipment I created for the Impulse, which will first appear in the next chapter. So this is mostly a set-up chapter, with a few small differences from canon.

* * *

><p><strong>PHASE 19: Endless Nightmare<strong>

**Kythira, Eurasian Federation**  
><strong>LHM-BB01 <em>Minerva<em>**

The sun was rising as Shinn flew the Core Splendor back to the _Minerva_, and when he arrived he found the port-side catapult was open. He knew that he was in for trouble, but after what he'd heard, if it meant Stella lived instead of being dissected like some kind of lab specimen, it was worth it.  
>He landed in the hangar and stepped out, though he felt more prudent to leave the big semiautomatic in the cockpit. Several MPs were waiting for him, assault rifles leveled.<p>

"Shinn Asuka," one of them started to say, "You are under arrest for violations of military law including Article 3, Section G." Another stepped forward and handcuffed him.

Under close guard, Shinn was brought to Yzak's quarters. Absently, he noticed Heine and Lunamaria were waiting outside, the latter looking worried. The MP announced himself.  
>"Excuse me, sir. We've arrested Shinn Asuka and brought him here as ordered."<p>

-"Bring him in." Yzak ordered from inside as the door opened.

The MPs stepped in, Shinn behind them. Yzak was at his desk, and he was livid. Arthur stood next to the desk. Yzak dismissed the MPs, leaving Shinn standing handcuffed in front of the desk, his face expressionless.

-"Well, kid. You've really done it this time." Yzak said, his tone indicating clearly how angry he was. It was taking Yzak every ounce of self-control he had not to throttle the kid. "Obviously, you know what you're facing here. Releasing a prisoner without authorizations; Multiple attacks on fellow crew members; Unauthorized use of military equipment; Unauthorized contact with enemy forces. I've never heard of such boneheaded disregard for military regulations! Just what in the hell was going through your head, Shinn? I don't care if you felt sorry for this girl, she was still..."

-"She was dying." Shinn said firmly. "Not that you would care." He added spitefully, glaring at Yzak.

-"What'd you say?" Yzak said, his voice rising. Next to him, Arthur looked appalled.

-"Alliance or not, Stella was a human being. And yet you treated her like some kind of animal! Like it didn't matter if she died, so long as you got your precious data!" Shinn continued, his voice rising. "You may talk about the Alliance as if they're some kind of inhuman monsters for the things they did. But as far as I'm concerned, sir...you're no better."

At that, Yzak had had it. He stood, walking around the desk, and cut loose with a right cross straight to Shinn's face. Shinn rolled with the punch so the impact was minimized somewhat, but the blow still threw him to the floor.

-"And you think that justifies your actions, you little bastard?" Yzak roared. Shinn just glared at him, his expression defiant. "The fact is, we had specific orders from Headquarters to deliver her to Gibraltar. Defying orders because of your personal opinion is unacceptable."

"I'll be reporting this to Headquarters." Yzak said as he sat back down. Shinn stood up, still glaring at Yzak with that defiant expression. "Until such a time as a formal decision is reached regarding your punishment, you are hereby confined to the brig."

The MPs entered Yzak's office and collected him, then escorted him to the brig, locking him in one of the cells. Shortly thereafter, the door to the brig opened.

"You know, when I said not to do anything rash, this is the kind of thing I was referring to." Heine said as he entered, still leaning on a crutch, although his injured leg was on the mend. "So, I take it you returned her safely?"

-"I did." Shinn said tonelessly. "I just couldn't stand it anymore. Stella is a victim here too; It's not like you or me - we volunteered for this. She didn't. But nobody cared about that - they only thought of her as some kind of lab experiment; like she wasn't even human! And nobody care whether she died or not."

-"Except you, lover boy?" Heine quipped mock-seriously. Then he continued. "Well then if that's what worried you so much, then I think we can be pretty certain that at least for now, she won't die. But have you thought about what happens next?"

Shinn looked at the older pilot, who continued. "You're not wrong; At least as far as that goes, I happen to agree. But face the facts, kid: She is one of the Alliance's Extendeds - and volunteer or no, she's killed her fair share of ZAFT soldiers, and then some.

-"So does that mean I should've done nothing, and let her die? She was suffering, and she was scared!" Shinn retorted.

-"That's not what I said. But do you really think you solved anything by returning her to the ones who made her that way in the first place?" Heine said. "I know you loved her, and you hated to see the way she was treated. But remember that the Alliance would treat her no better; they might even treat her worse. And mark my words: I don't care what they told you, as soon as they can they'll put her back out there. Just think about that."

Heine then left the brig, leaving Shinn alone in the dark with his thoughts. On a certain level, as much as he hated to admit it, Heine was right.

But that woman...that doctor. She had promised. And somehow, he knew that she had meant it when she did.  
>That was enough for him...for now.<p>

The following day, repairs were completed on Lunamaria's ZAKU, while the emergency repairs on the ship itself continued. Yzak and Heine were on the bridge, when the medical bay contacted the bridge and asked for them to come down. Given that there was only one patient in medical currently, Yzak was worried. However, the news was good.

"Hey, look who's back from the dead." Heine commented as they entered. Athrun, who had regained consciousness, looked from Heine to Yzak, smiling weakly.

-"Sorry." He said, "Didn't mean to make you guys worry."

-"Save it, Athrun." Yzak said, but all three of them knew his anger was at least partly feigned. "I'm just glad to see you're on the mend. We're a little short on pilots with brains in their heads around here."

-"What do you mean?" Athrun asked. Then he looked around, and he saw the empty bed, heavy straps still dangling from its frame. "Hey, where's..."

-"The Extended? What did Shinn say her name was? Right, Stella." Heine interrupted. "Well, Shinn got it into his head to return her to the Alliance. Hijacked the spare Core Splendor and flew her out last night. He's in the brig for now."

-"If it were me, I'd have tossed the little idiot overboard." Yzak glowered as Heine recounted the events of the previous night.

-"That sounds familiar." Athrun commented dryly.

-"How so?" Heine asked.

-"During the previous war, Lacus's shuttle, the _Silverwind_, went missing, do you remember?" Athrun started. Heine nodded, vaguely remembering having heard of the incident at the time. "Anyway, she ended up being recovered by the _Archangel_, which was being pursued by the LeCreuset Team. When one of the officers onboard used her as a hostage to force us to back off...well after that, the pilot of their mobile suit returned her to us, to the _Vesalius_."

-"That was completely different." Yzak started to say.

-"Was it though?" Heine contested. "There are some differences, and unlike this Stella girl Lacus Clyne was a civilian. But the general circumstances are not entirely dissimilar..."

-"In any case, I've reported the matter to Headquarters." Yzak interjected. "We're still waiting to hear back, so he can cool his heels in the brig until we reach Gibraltar."

It took another day for the emergency repairs to the ship to proceed to a point where it could safely travel the rest of the way to Gibraltar. Escorted by the Lesseps-class and two Vosgolov-class subs, the _Minerva_ reached ZAFT's second largest base several days later than it had originally intended, but it had arrived. Shinn had remained in the brig during this time, with only occasional visits from Lunamaria or Heine. Athrun remained in medical.

Yzak, Arthur and Heine left the ship and headed up to the base to report, and to receive their latest orders. The gathered data and what tissue and biological samples they did have from Lodonia were offloaded as well, to be analyzed further at a more specialized facility. The Gaia was also taken off the ship.

Meanwhile, more extensive repairs and resupply was begun on the ship as well as its mobile suits, especially the lost weapons, destroyed as a result of the battle. Aves was overseeing the loading of replacement parts and mobile suits, when the foreman in charge of the work approached him.

"That should be just about everything. Additional parts and supplies for ZGMF-1000 ZAKU Warrior, ZGMF-2000 GOUF Ignited. Additional mobile suits should be assigned to the ship shortly; we're just waiting to hear from the Homeland. I've also got additional parts here for a ZGMF-X56S Impulse."

-"New parts for the Impulse?" Aves asked. He glanced at the readout the other man handed him. "Hmm...Okay. The new parts for the Impulse go in there." Aves indicated the loading bay for the central catapult, which held the Impulse's various Flyers.

The crews began loading the new components, and Aves noted with some interest that the Force Silhouettes were offloaded to make room for the new equipment. Soon enough, the loading was complete. With the resupply finished, the only thing remaining now was completing the ship's repairs.

**April 23th**  
><strong>Chelyabinsk, Russia<strong>

The VTOL transport plane, escorted by a single Dagger, approached its destination: A gigantic, steel-grey land battleship, the Atlantic Federation's Hannibal-class _Bonaparte_. Onboard the transport plane was a single mobile armor, and several Dagger-Ls. The pilots of the half-dozen or so machines were in the craft's passenger compartment, along with three others: Lukas O'Donnell, Doctor Martin Rice, and Stella Loussier. The latter was sedated at the moment.

Upon returning to the Jones, Doctor Kinney had just about worked a miracle, stabilizing Stella's condition and bringing her back. However, orders had come down from the top brass: Rice, Lukas, and the Extended were transferred out; Kinney was ordered to remain with the _Jones_.

And now, here they were. The pilot transmitted the craft's ID code, identifying it as belonging to the 81st Independent Battalion, and received permission to land. As they disembarked, Lukas and Rice were shown to their own quarters, and then to where Stella would be kept, personally supervised by Rice and a couple of orderlies.  
>Returning to his own quarters, Lukas thought about the last conversation he'd had with Jibril, shortly before leaving the Jones.<p>

"Miscalculations happen even with the best-laid plans. I suppose one can conclude that the _Minerva_ is too much to handle, even for you." Jibril had said. "Fortunately, the X1 is nearly complete. I've decided to hand it over to you - although an operation like this one wouldn't be necessary if your team had just destroyed the _Minerva_ in the first place, but these things happen."

He thought about the specified targets as he briefly glanced at the specifications for the new model mobile armor GFAS-X1, aptly code-named "Destroy".

Broadly speaking, his orders were to use the new mobile armor to bring Eurasia into line. He supposed wryly that the fact that both Baum and Marshall were supposedly going to be in one of the target cities could not be a coincidence. Then he pondered Jibril's last words to him before the line had been cut.

"You have to cut off the diseased limb swiftly, before the cancer spreads." He had said.

Lukas shrugged. "The only good Coordinator's a dead one." He muttered. As for the Naturals who sided with the PLANTs, they were no different in his view.

A few days later, they were ready. Stella's recovery was complete, and for good measure Rice had done a complete wipe of her memories, removing the incident beginning with her capture and leading up to her arrival on the Bonaparte, as well as any recollection of Lodonia itself.

Lukas took her into the ship's cavernous primary hangar, where the gigantic mobile armor was waiting for her. Developed from data gathered from the Zamza-Zah and Gells-Ghe, combined with technologies introduced in the Chaos, it was the most powerful mobile weapon in existence, with more than five times the power of a traditional mobile suit such as the Gaia.

"This is the new machine you're going to pilot." Lukas announced as they looked up at it.

-"This...is my machine?" Stella asked, turning from the Destroy to look at Lukas. "A new one?"

-"That's right." Lukas said, nodding. "You have to use it to fight again, Stella. Otherwise...enemies will come. And they'll kill us all." As Lukas spoke, he thought of the kid who'd brought her back. So naïve - and Kinney was just as foolish.

-"Kill us...all? Stella too?" she suddenly asked, frightened. "Even Lukas?" Lukas nodded.

-"That's right." He answered.

-"No!" Stella exclaimed, shaking her head, leaning into his shoulder. "No way! I don't want to die!"

-"Then I'm afraid you'll have to fight." Lukas replied. "I know you can do this, Stella. Use this machine to get rid of them all."

Stella nodded, and with Lukas watching she climbed into the Destroy's spacious cockpit, as launch preparations began.

"Linkage to Biological CPU, satisfactory. GFAS-X1, standby for launch. Emergency crew, stand by. Opening gates for X1 launch platform."

As Lukas headed to the Chaos, the gigantic dome that made up the top of the Bonaparte slid apart, and the platform carrying the enormous mobile armor slid upwards. Once it was in place, the Destroy's thrusters carried it up and forward, and it took up a position in front of the ship.

"All right. Let's get out there too. Lukas O'Donnell here. Chaos, launching!" Lukas said, and the Chaos took off, taking up a position above the Destroy, along with a team of roughly a dozen Jet Daggers, as the formation continued on its course towards their target.

**ZAFT Forces Gibraltar Base  
>LHM-BB01 <em>Minerva<em>**

Repairs on the _Minerva_'s hull continued, and its destroyed weapons had already been repaired. In the hangar Aves and his team were hard at work ensuring that all of their mobile suits were ready to go.

Shinn had remained in the brig this entire time. In the darkness of the small cell, he brooded over the events of the last few months, especially what had happened with Stella, and he thought about Heine's words to him when they had last spoken.

With every fiber of his being, he wanted to believe in that doctor's promise, that Stella was okay, somewhere away from the war. But Heine's words had made him realize that there was little chance of that.

He'd also heard from Lunamaria that Athrun had regained consciousness, although he was still in extremely bad shape, and with his injuries it would be a while before he could leave medical. The news had relieved him. After losing Rey, he didn't think he could stand to have the Freedom take away another friend.

That thought had surprised him - he'd never really thought of Athrun as a friend before; he respected the older pilot, yes. But a friend? Even now, Shinn shook his head at the idea.

He knew that they had arrived at Gibraltar, and this entire time he had remained in the brig. Shinn wondered what would happen to him now...

"Sir," Abby announced on the bridge, addressing Yzak. "Emergency Level-One communication from Headquarters."

-"Route it to my personal terminal. I'll take it in my quarters." Yzak ordered, standing as he did so.

-"Right." Abby acknowledged, as Yzak left the bridge, Arthur at his heels.

"I wonder what's going to happen to Shinn." the latter wondered out loud.

-"Normally? Given the severity of his offenses, he would probably be executed." Yzak commented. "Still, taking into account his impressive record so far, I think he should escape the death penalty."

They reached his quarters, and Yzak entered and sat down, with Arthur standing behind him. "Because we failed to stop him, we'll probably be charged as well." Yzak continued, then unlocked his terminal. The communication came in, and Yzak found himself facing the Chairwoman of the National Defense Committee - his own mother, Ezalia Joule.

"Captain Joule." She said formally.

-"Ms. Chairwoman." he replied stiffly.

-"Concerning the escape of the captured Extended, it is an unfortunate setback. However, the raid provided ample data as well as biological samples for study, so it is not too significant."

-"And what about Shinn?" Yzak asked.

-"According to your report, he's been incarcerated since his return, is that correct?" Ezalia asked.

-"That is correct." Yzak replied, wondering what she was leading up to.

-"In light of his accomplishments and the exemplary record of your ship thus far, as well as the gravity of the current war situation, the National Defense Committee has decided not to proceed to a court-martial. An official letter of reprimand will be issued, and any additional punishment will be left to your discretion, Captain."

-"Very well. Thank you, ma'am." Yzak replied, then the line went dead.

Several hours later, a team of MPs entered the brig and unlocked Shinn's cell.

"You - get out." one of them ordered. Shinn stood impassively, exiting the cell and letting himself be handcuffed, as the MPs escorted him up to Yzak's office.  
>Yzak dismissed the MPs, who removed the handcuffs and left. Then Shinn stepped up to the desk, where Yzak handed him the letter of reprimand.<p>

Shinn read it without a word.

"There you have it." Yzak said flatly. "Consider yourself lucky; if the Council had pressed charges, you would have been executed. Well, do you have anything to say for yourself?"

-"No, sir." Shinn replied tonelessly.

-"Then beat it. And don't do something that stupid again - next time, _I_'ll personally have you court-martialed."

Shinn left the office without another word, then headed down to the mess to get something to drink. There, he found Vino, Yolant, and Lunamaria. Heine, who had at last been able to forego the crutch, was also present.

"Shinn!" Vino exclaimed when he saw him. "I'm glad to see you! We were so worried, man."

-"I'm sorry for any trouble I caused you." He said sincerely. "But I'm all right now. I truly appreciate your concern." As he spoke, he looked to Heine.

-"Okay. Just promise me something. Don't do something like that again." The older man said with a slight look of concern.

-"Sure." Shinn replied.

**Warsaw, Eurasian Federation  
>Land battleship <em>Compton<em>**

The Eurasian Federation heavy land battleship _Compton_ had been stationed outside of Warsaw, an area that in the months since the war had seen significant unrest as a result of the growing rift between Eurasia and their powerful neighbors. A second ship of the same class, the _Martindale_, had also been stationed here. The situation had been exacerbated since, in the aftermath of the Break the World incident, ZAFT relief forces had been stationed not far away, purportedly for humanitarian aid to parts of the region affected by the fall of Junius Seven.

However, nothing had prepared them for what they were facing, as the ship's CIC suddenly reported large numbers of incoming units.

"What are we talking about here?" Colonel Rankov, the CO, asked.

"Looks like about thirty mobile suits...they're Daggers, sir!" The CIC responded. "Plus two unknowns. Signatures are at least battleship-class."

-"Bring them up on the monitor." Rankov ordered, and the large screens suddenly showed what they were facing. In the very rear, an enormous land battleship, at least as large as the Compton itself, flanked by several formations of Jet Striker-equipped Daggers and a handful of Windams. In the foreground, a mobile armor that the systems recognized as the Atlantic Federation's TSX-MA24F Chaos, along with still more Daggers. But what shocked them most was the machine at the head of the line, a monstrous black behemoth with enormous twin-barreled cannons on its back.

Then the GFAS-X1 Destroy attacked, firing its two twin-barreled "Aupfrall Dreizehn" beam cannons at the two ships and the mobile suits arrayed around them. The attack tore the _Martindale_ apart before it even had a chance to counterattack, annihilating at least half of the mobile suits around it and continuing past until it struck the outermost sectors of the city itself.

"The hell? Counterattack - send out all our mobile suits...and send out a mayday on the International Rescue Channel!" Rankov ordered. The response was immediate, as the _Compton_ began deploying its mobile suits and fired at the enemy mobile armor.

The Destroy immediately deployed a positron reflector, which blocked the incoming barrage, rendering the attack ineffective, and counterattacked with a barrage of missiles that devastated the mobile suit forces on the ground.

In the air, the Daggers that were escorting the Destroy found themselves engaged directly by the Compton's own aerial assault teams, composed almost entirely of the significantly superior Windam. Though the Daggers had the advantage in numbers, the Eurasian pilots had equal skill and better machines.

However, the Destroy fired a massive barrage of missiles indiscriminately into the melée, taking out several Windams as well as any Daggers unfortunate enough to be caught in the crossfire.

Then they heard a response.

"_Compton_, this is the _Rommel_. We read your mayday loud and clear." came the message, as from the south a pair of ZAFT Lesseps-class land battleships closed at long-range, firing on the Destroy along with a massive formation of TMF/A-802 BuCUEs, roughly half of which were of the newer W2 "Kerberos" model, as well as equal numbers of aerial units, a mix of DINNs and the brand-new GOUF Ignited. Caught between the two formations and now outnumbered three to one, the Daggers that were escorting the Destroy soon went down. However, the Destroy itself attacked, firing an array of beam cannons mounted around the circumference of its body that targeted all of the ZAFT forces. Roughly half of the BuCUEs and most of the GOUFs were able to evade the attacks, but the slower DINNs and many of the remaining Daggers were destroyed. With another attack, the Destroy fired an array of enormous multiphase beam cannons as well as its two back-mounted weapons at the ZAFT ships, obliterating them both then it continued into Minsk itself.

The _Compton_ sought to pursue, but it was engaged by the ship to the rear, along with its own remaining mobile suits.

At the same time, the remaining ZAFT mobile suits and the handful of the _Compton_'s Daggers that remained moved in to pursue, but were unable to land any significant hits on the Destroy, thwarted by its multiple positron reflectors and its incredibly thick armor.

When a team of ZAFT aerial mobile suits tried to attack it from behind, the Destroy unleashed a barrage from the missile launchers on its back, followed by a shot from its back-mounted cannons. The onslaught obliterated the remaining GOUFs and tore through the city itself before catching the Compton broadside, tearing apart the ship's hull and destroying the bridge.

With its enemy destroyed, the Bonaparte continued following from a distance as the Destroy, escorted by the Chaos, continued its rampage unhindered.

**Gibraltar**  
><strong>LHM-BB-01 <em>Minerva<em>**

Yzak was reading through a report from Aves. Repairs on the ship itself and what mobile suits it carried were nearly complete. However, even though nearly two weeks had passed they had yet to receive additional forces from Headquarters. Yzak had been informed that replacement mobile suits were being flown in from Carpentaria, but they had yet to arrive. Suddenly, his thoughts were interrupted by a message from Abby Windsor.

"Emergency message from Headquarters, sir!" the ship's communications officer reported from her console. "The Alliance is staging an invasion in Western Eurasia. Minsk and Warsaw have already been destroyed! The enemy has already eliminated the Bridger and Craig Teams when they attempted to support Eurasian forces attempting to engage the enemy force, and is now continuing towards Berlin. All ZAFT forces are to go to emergency status!"

-"What the hell? Three cities taken out already?..." Yzak exclaimed. Then they brought up the footage that was transmitted to them from what remained of Berlin.

-"What in God's name is that thing?" Arthur exclaimed. There was a crashing sound, as Yzak slammed his fist down on the arm of his chair.

-"That really doesn't matter at the moment, Arthur." the Captain glowered at his XO. Then he gave out his orders. "Upgrade to Condition Red. _Minerva_, prepare for immediate emergency takeoff! We're going in - we have to stop that thing, no matter what!"

And soon enough, the _Minerva_, sorely under-equipped as it was, took off from Gibraltar, heading northeast across Eurasia towards its next mission.

He only hoped they could take that monster down...


	20. Phase 20: Stella

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **Okay, a couple of notes before we begin. Because I frankly thought it looked retarded, I have eliminated the Destroy's mobile suit mode, making it instead a really big mobile armor, and made one or two tweaks to its armament as a result. Also, I changed its color to black, but that's cosmetic.  
>Second, the Impulse deploys here with new equipment. I was originally saving this specific equipment for Phase 22, but I decided to use it here first.<p>

Finally, you'll note that the venue for the battle has changed from Berlin to Hamburg. There is a very specific reason for this, which will become clear next chapter. With that said, here.

* * *

><p><strong>PHASE 20: Stella<strong>

**Hamburg, Eurasian Federation**

"How many live here in Hamburg, Brennan?"

The question came from a barrel-chested man of fifty-five, with close-cropped salt-and-pepper hair and wearing an impeccably tailored grey suit, as he stood looking out at the city from the window of the office he presently occupied in the Hamburg Rathaus. He turned and faced the second, much younger man.

"2.2 million, sir." Brennan Marshall replied grimly. "We've begun an evacuation, with as many as possible heading for the harbor, but..."

- "There aren't enough ships to carry them all." The older man interrupted. "And what about defense?"

- "Every asset we have is assembling outside the city, and ZAFT is sending reinforcements as well." Marshall stated. "A number of their ships stationed in the area are already in place, and more are inbound including the assault carrier _Minerva_. Also, the 501st is standing by at Wilhelmshaven."

President William Baum sighed wearily. Two and a half years of careful work at trying to rebuild after the devastation wrought by the Bloody Valentine War, unraveled in mere months.

- "Thank you. And what about the rest?"

- "It was a stretch getting everyone together, but we have the necessary support in the legislative." Marshall replied. He and several of his aides had been manning the phones non-stop since the attack began. "We can move ahead."

- "Very well. Alea iacta est." Baum said in a resigned tone. The die was cast.

Meanwhile, as the Destroy continued its rampage, the Bonaparte still following, Teivel Jibril watched the gigantic mobile armor's progress from his own hiding place, a gigantic monitor showing video footage of the destruction wrought by his creation. As he watched the Destroy effortlessly annihilate yet another team of ZAFT mobile suits as they engaged, the leader of Blue Cosmos cackled in satisfaction, before addressing his colleagues, who were also visible on the monitor and whom, he knew, were also watching.

"Well, gentlemen, what do you think?" He asked. "Isn't the Destroy simply...overwhelming?"

- "That it certainly is." Replied one of the others. "There's nothing left - everything is being reduced to ashes."

- "How much do you plan to burn using this...thing?" Bruno Azrael asked.

- "As much as it takes." Jibril said callously. "As long as there is a ZAFT presence, we will torch everything in sight. Anyone being friendly with them will be taught the lesson again: We Naturals are different from the Coordinators, and anyone who betrays that basic fact will found they've bought a one-way ticket to hell."

There was silence for a moment, and then the image one of the major news networks covering the attack changed. On the screen was Claudia Bailey, the Eurasian press secretary, who stated that President Baum would address the nation, and added that he would not answer any questions. Moments later Baum himself appeared and took his place behind the podium, then began to speak.

"Good afternoon. I come before you all today on the gravest possible matter. Approximately twenty-four hours ago, an Atlantic Federation strike force consisting of a large land battleship and approximately thirty mobile suits launched an assault on the city of Warsaw, accompanied by an enormous mobile armor. This force annihilated two Eurasian Federation land battleships, as well as two entire teams of ZAFT mobile suits including Lesseps-class ships that came to the assistance of our beleaguered soldiers. The city was subsequently leveled. We later learned that Minsk had suffered the same fate. Each of these cities had a population of nearly two million. Early estimates of the death toll put it at nearly ninety percent. This weapon then continued on towards Berlin, where it was once again engaged by the courageous forces of the Eurasian Federation Armed Forces, aided by ZAFT's relief forces, while an evacuation was under way. In spite of these heroic efforts, an estimated forty percent of the city's four million souls were lost."

Baum paused for a moment, before he continued. His hands were shaking, his knuckles white where he clutched the podium.

"It has been my hope and my goal since you elected me to this office to enable us to come to a lasting, peaceful coexistence with our neighbors here on Earth, as well as in Space." he said. "My opposite number in the Atlantic Federation seems to have decided otherwise, declaring war on the PLANTs, and now launching this unwarranted, inexcusable attack against us, an attack that has already claimed far too many lives. It is with great regret therefore, that I must hereby declare that the Eurasian Federation is now at war with the Atlantic Federation."

Jibril swore violently, then turned off the monitor, cutting off the link with his colleagues. After a moment, he calmed down. Both Baum and that nuisance Marshall were in Hamburg. His ultimate mobile weapon would just kill them too when it leveled that city.

**LHM-BB01 _Minerva_**  
><strong>En route to Hamburg<strong>

The _Minerva_, having taken off from Gibraltar, was headed northeast across Eurasian Federation territory at low altitude, towards Germany - a distance of over 1,400 miles. They would be too late to reach Berlin in time. However, the enemy machine's course had made clear its next target: Hamburg, where at that very moment both President Baum and Vice-President Marshall were located, along with a select few members of the Eurasian Federation's government.

And so, the ship headed for Hamburg, passing to the west of the Pyrénées before turning across France. On the bridge, Yzak was seething as he read the reports of the ongoing devastation. They were up against quite possibly the most powerful weapon system ever created. And they would be going in with just the Impulse - none of their other mobile suits were combat-ready, and even if they were, they only had three pilots who weren't injured.

At the moment, Shinn was being personally briefed by Aves on the Impulse's new equipment, which he would use for the first time during this battle. Yzak had been skeptical, wanting to use the more heavily-armed Blast Silhouette, but Heine had pointed out that the ability to evade the enemy mobile armor's attacks mattered far more than firepower. It was a race against time to see whether they could reach the city before the gigantic thing could level it, as it had leveled Minsk, Warsaw, and now Berlin. And it was a race that they had to win.

The Destroy reached the outskirts of Hamburg, where a massive formation of Alliance tanks and mobile suits, supported by two Lesseps-class battleships and a huge number of BuCUE and GaZuOOT mobile suits, as well as DINN aerial types. The enormous mobile armor opened fire with its main cannons, the shots ripping apart one of the Lesseps-class ships as both opened fire, the shots glancing uselessly off its Phase Shift-armored body. A subsequent barrage from its missile launchers and "Nefertem" thermal beam cannons decimated the ranks of mobile suits.  
>Suddenly, from above a pair of beam cannon shots bore down on the Destroy, and in the cockpit, Stella activated one of several positron reflectors mounted to the machine, blocking the attack.<p>

Then she saw the mobile suit responsible: The Freedom.

"Him again." She muttered, her feelings divided between fear and anger. The Freedom shot straight towards the Destroy, attacking successively with its beam rifle and "Balaena" beam cannons. Not a single shot went through, each one blocked by the Destroy's powerful positron reflector.  
>Behind the Freedom came the <em>Archangel<em> itself. Seeing this, Lukas's Chaos moved forward.

"Stella, watch out." he warned. "That's the Freedom - he's a tough one."

The Archangel fired its Gottfried beam cannons at the Destroy, and Stella once again blocked with the positron reflectors.

"It doesn't matter...WHAT YOU THROW AT ME!" She yelled as she counterattacked, firing not only the Aupfrall Dreizehn back-mounted beam cannons, but the triple 250cm "Super Scylla" multiphase beam cannon at the _Archangel_, forcing the ship to evade the attack and preventing them from either firing or targeting the Bonaparte far behind her.

"Damn." Kira swore. "To go to such extremes...What's the point of all this?" He shot forward, intending to attempt another attack on the Destroy, but a shot from the Chaos's plasma beam cannon forced him to back off.

"Don't be ignoring me now, you little bastard." Lukas spat. He deployed the Chaos's two Gunbarrels, firing their beam cannons at the Freedom, trying to catch him in a crossfire between them and the Chaos itself as he fired the linear cannons and beam cannon. The Freedom evaded every attack.

Then, the Destroy did the same. Mounted to the underside its body was a pair of wireless, remotely-operated "Sturm Faust" gunbarrels - one to each side. These weapons were armed with a 5-barrel beam gun and a 20cm "Zorn MkII" plasma cannon, scaled-up versions of the Chaos's own armaments. it deployed both, firing all of these weapons at the Freedom.

Onboard the _Archangel_, Canard watched the battle with growing apprehension.  
>"I'm going out there. Kira's completely outmatched, he needs backup." He said.<p>

-"You're right." Andy said. "I'm going out too." Soon Andrew's Murasame, followed by Canard in the Aile Strike, were airborne as well.

**PLANT, Aprilius One**

"The Gardner Team has been wiped out. Target is presently making its way into the city of Hamburg. We have reports that President Baum, as well as Vice-President Marshall, have been evacuated by helicopter to Wilhelmshaven Naval Base." Eileen Canaver of the Diplomatic Committee reported.

- "What's going on here - burning down cities at random, with no prior warning." Ezalia Joule spoke next, her tone shaking with barely-repressed anger. "It's insanity."

- "And now, the Eurasian Federation has declared war." Louise Leitner commented.

- "Most of our forces stationed in the affected cities have been annihilated. We have to withdraw our remaining forces." Crister Oberge stated emphatically.

- "What good will that do?" Durendal asked rhetorically. "Withdrawing our remaining forces won't solve the current problem. What about the _Minerva_? Where is it now?"

- "It's headed towards Hamburg, on orders from Fleet Headquarters." Ezalia replied. "Unfortunately, their current battle strength is low; I'm not sure how much help it will be."

- "That may be true, but someone must stop this." Durendal said firmly, standing as he spoke. "Or else in their arrogance, they will go on to burn still more cities. This cannot be allowed."

**Hamburg**

Kira and the Freedom were still engaged with the Chaos, as he avoided the attacks from its Gunbarrels while at the same time blocking or evading repeated attacks from those of the Destroy. Narrowly avoiding the latest attack, Kira countered with a blow that destroyed one of the Gunbarrels.  
>Then, his sensors indicated new incoming signatures. Behind him, he recognized the Strike and Andy's Murasame. But incoming from the northwest, six new signatures. He checked: Four Jet Daggers, an Aile Windam, and a Windam IWSP. All six bore identical, distinctive black paint schemes.<p>

"What the hell?" Lukas wondered, as he too recognized the incoming formation. "The 501st? Damn..."  
>He was forced to evade attacks from the six Eurasian machines, and as a result he broke off his attack on the Freedom. And then alarms in his cockpit rang as yet another new player entered the stage.<p>

At last the _Minerva_ was in range, and a furious Yzak asked for a status report as they closed in.

"No response from the frontline command post, Gardner or Lyman Teams." Abby reported.

- "Multiple heat sources detected; The Chaos and multiple Alliance Daggers and Windams." Bart Heim reported. "Also confirming the Freedom and the _Archangel_, as well as the Strike and a single Orb Murasame."

- "You've gotta be fucking kidding me." Yzak fumed. "Looks like these pricks take their self-appointed role of guardian angel seriously - any cry for help and they come running in."

- "There appears to be a single large battleship outside the city." Bart added.

- "Activate CIWS, Tristans, and Isoldes, load Dispars in launchers 1-4, Parsifals in 6-10. Load all bow tubes with Fafnir." Yzak ordered.

At that moment, the Bonaparte opened fire on the _Minerva_, unleashing a barrage of missiles at the approaching ZAFT ship.  
>Yzak immediately ordered a counterattack, and the ship's CIWS roared to life, intercepting and destroying the incoming projectiles.<p>

"Fire bow tube one and two. Target the enemy land battleship." Yzak ordered coldly. The two tubes opened, and the ship shuddered as for the third time in her life the 4.5-ton "Fafnir" heavy anti-ship missiles shot from the tubes towards the target, accelerating rapidly, and in a matter of seconds, both projectiles hit the Bonaparte at precisely the same instant.  
>The resulting explosion of a combined 900 kilograms of high explosives obliterated the front of the ship, causing fatal damage that was only exacerbated when the ship's own missiles detonated as a result.<br>The destruction of the Atlantic Federation's first land battleship was as complete as it was swift. In a matter of moments, there was literally nothing left of the enormous vessel but a twisted, burning carcass.

"Right." Yzak commented callously. "That's one problem taken care of."

Shinn, meanwhile, was standing by to launch, reviewing what they knew of their enemy. Heine was present, as was the injured Lunamaria, when the monitor lit up.  
>"Shinn." He said tersely, and the younger man looked up.<p>

- "Yes, sir?" He asked.

- "The situation's worse than I'd expected. We can't contact any of our frontline forces, and the enemy is being engaged by the Freedom and the _Archangel_."

- "WHAT?" Shinn exclaimed. "The hell're they doing here?"

- "No idea what they might be planning. But remember that you only have one target. Our ship has been ordered to stop that monster, no matter what it takes. Get moving."

- "Right." Shinn replied, a simmering anger edging his voice. The screen went dead.

Heine stepped up, laying a hand on Shinn's shoulder.  
>"We're all counting on you, kid." he said. "Do your best." Shinn nodded, then turned to head to the hangar and get ready to take off.<p>

Though they had initially been planning to back up Kira against the Destroy, the enemy mobile armor's reckless disregard for its surroundings had forced Canard and Andrew to play a defensive role. In spite of the evacuation having been ordered hours ago, there were still civilians in the area that were trying to flee. Canard and Andrew had thus both found themselves shielding the groups of civilians from attacks as the Destroy fired its weapons into the city seemingly at random, at the same time targeting the Freedom with its enormous Gunbarrels.

When the Destroy fired a barrage of missiles at him, Kira felt himself enter the state of expanded awareness and enhanced ability that came to him in combat, and using the Freedom's CIWS as well as the railguns and beam cannons, he intercepted and shot down the incoming missiles.

Then an alarm rang in his cockpit, as a new mobile suit approached, at a speed nearly equal to the Freedom's: The Impulse, with new equipment - it looked similar to its previous flight pack, but with enlarged, higher-output thrusters. Also, its beam sabers were replaced by heavier beam swords, and it had a pair of beam cannons deployed over each shoulder. A long canister on each wing held 12 AGM-33 "Ladybird" light anti-MS missiles.

This was the new Storm Silhouette, a high-mobility anti-MS combat pack developed as a tentative replacement for all three of its predecessors, combining improved melee capability and ranged firepower with high speed and aerial maneuverability.

With difficulty, Shinn ignored the Freedom, turning his attention on the Destroy. He fired the Storm Impulse's "Fenris" 90mm high-energy beam cannons as well as its beam rifle, but the attack was reflected harmlessly.  
>The gigantic black mobile armor spun about and turned to face him, and Shinn couldn't quite shake a bad feeling about this machine. He shook his head, drew one of the Storm Impulse's "Caliburn" heavy anti-mobile suit beam swords, and he shot towards it. The enemy mobile armor's cannons sent up a massive barrage at the Impulse, but Shinn dodged the attacks easily, and then dipped below its line of fire, shot upwards, and delivered a vicious diagonal slash to its lower main body, carving a gouge across its cockpit block.<p>

"Stella!" Lukas called out as he saw what happened. Firing a barrage of missiles from his remaining Gunbarrels at the Daggers, he broke off the attack and headed towards the other combatants even as the Impulse pulled back, preparing to move in for a second attack. The barrage took out two of the Daggers, while the others pursued.

In the Destroy's cockpit, the terrified Stella opened fire with every weapon the Destroy had, causing massive collateral damage to the area.

"What is with this monster?" Shinn raged. "Why do they want to kill people so badly?"

The Destroy deployed its Sturm Faust gunbarrels again, and even as it fired Shinn slipped out of the line of fire. A barrage from the beam rifle and "Fenris" cannons was blocked by the positron reflector mounted on one of them, but he closed in and, dipping below where the reflector didn't cover it, carved the weapon in half with the Caliburn. Then he returned his attention to the Destroy itself, just as the Chaos closed in and opened fire with its plasma beam gun and linear cannons. Shinn dodged the attack easily, and the Chaos missed slamming into the Impulse by a matter of only a few feet.

"Stop it, kid!" The pilot of the mobile armor yelled, and Shinn recognized the voice of the man Lukas. "The pilot of that machine...it's Stella!"

"What?" Shinn exclaimed. He focused in on the gash he'd cut in the mobile armor's cockpit. Sure enough, that was her. Rage flared in Shinn and he turned on Lukas.

"You...you lying bastard! I'LL KILL YOU FOR THIS!" He screamed, and he immediately opened fire on the Chaos, emptying the two wing canisters as he unloaded twenty-four AGM-33 guided missiles at the mobile armor. As he did so, he felt, as he had against the Orb fleet, and before against the Alliance fleet outside Orb, his awareness of the battlefield expand exponentially, as if everything were moving in slow motion.

The Chaos attempted to dodge the attack, firing its weapons and shooting down a number of missiles, but the range was too close and the projectiles too numerous. Roughly half the missiles impacted, and though the Chaos's PS Armor held, Lukas was thrown off balance for a short instant. Taking advantage of the opening, Shinn launched a followup strike that Lukas only partly managed to dodge, as one of its three remaining Gunbarrels was blasted off its mounting point.

Then the Freedom moved in, and Kira fired the Freedom's railguns at the Destroy, targeting the gash in its cockpit block. Stella screamed as the attack hit, damaging the Destroy still further.

Kira detected the Chaos approaching and turned to face it, but before he could do anything, four Alliance mobile suits intervened.

Sven Cal Bayan and Mudie Holcroft, in their Windams, led the assault. As much as she had admired and respected Lukas O'Donnell, the Eurasian Federation was her country, and she felt outraged at the betrayal. And so she opened fire on the Chaos without a second's hesitation.

Lukas deployed the two remaining gunbarrels, then fired at the Alliance formation. The four mobile suits scattered, easily avoiding the attack. Lukas immediately turned all his weapons on one of the Daggers and succeeded in shooting it down.

However, the remaining three machines regrouped and converged on the Chaos from above. His Gunbarrels were both destroyed by systematic attacks from Sven Cal Bayan's Windam IWSP, leaving him with only his linear cannons and multiphase beam cannons. From above, the machines were out of reach of his beam claws. Then Mudie herself fired her beam carbine, as did the two Daggers. Crippled, the Chaos began to fall, slamming into the ground below.

"Lukas!" Stella yelled as she saw the Chaos go down. Now Lukas too...she was next.

"No...I don't want to die..." she muttered fearfully, and then with a scream of terror she opened fire, unleashing a barrage from the Destroy's "Super Scylla" cannons that forced the Freedom to back off, moving out of the mobile armor's line of fire. The Impulse had not moved, the shots missing it by several feet.

"What are you doing?" Kira hailed over the radio. "You're a sitting duck just floating there!"

The comment caught Shinn's attention. The voice seemed vaguely familiar, but he dismissed it instantly.

"Shinn? What the hell's going on out there?!" He heard Yzak's voice on the comm, but he cut the link. The Destroy fired again, indiscriminately it seemed, wildly. Like its pilot was panicking.

_'It's my fault...it's my fault this happened...if I hadn't...'_ he thought. Then he shook his head. It wasn't his fault. It was that bastard Lukas, and now he was done for. But Stella...he had to save her. He stored the Caliburn and the Impulse's rifle, dipped low, and closed in.

"Damn it..." Kira swore as he closed in, saber drawn, and attacked. "Stop it now!"

He aimed an attack at the Destroy with the saber, but its positron reflector activated, blocking the attack.

"Back off, you bastard!" Shinn yelled viciously, and he turned his attention to the Freedom. He drew one of the Impulse's beam sabers and shot towards the Freedom. slashing across its torso, but Kira dodged the attacks easily. However, he'd been forced back, and just then the Destroy deployed its remaining "Sturm Faust" gunbarrel, firing its weapons at the Freedom.

That gave Shinn the opening he needed, and he moved back in towards the Destroy.

"No...I don't want...to die..." Stella muttered, her hands shaking as she grasped the controls. Lukas gone, everybody was gone.

"STELLA!" she heard a voice call her name. She knew that voice, somehow. "You're not going to die!"

She looked up. There was something strangely comforting about the voice, but she couldn't...quite...

"I promised...I gave you my word! I will protect you!"

The words stirred something in her mind, and suddenly she remembered. He had saved her when she almost drowned. When she was prisoner, dying, it had been him who was at her side, him who returned him to Lukas and Dr. Kinney, who saved her life again. Him who had shown her something that she had never known before.

"Shinn." she whispered, and she released the Destroy's controls. She saw a dark blue mobile suit moving towards her, and somehow she knew that it was him. "Shinn." She said again, and her face lit up as she smiled.

"Stella...I..."

But then behind him, she saw the Freedom. That mobile suit had attacked Lukas. It had attacked her. It tried to kill her. She screamed in horror as it closed in, and she grasped the controls.

"Stella...NO! Don't do it! STELLA!" Shinn yelled, fearing the worst.

But as the cannons on its torso began to charge, the Freedom moved in, and drove its beam saber deep into the center cannon. Kira drew his second beam saber and prepared to strike the finishing blow, when alarms rang in his cockpit.

"I SAID BACK OFF, YOU MURDERING BASTARD!" Shinn screamed in rage, beam saber in hand as he struck, the blow catching Kira by surprise and severing its right arm. Then Shinn delivered a vicious kick that threw the Freedom back.

Reflexively, Kira counterattacked with his remaining beam saber, but Shinn parried the attack with his own. Then he fired the "Fenris" shoulder beam cannons. At such close range, Kira was barely able to block the attack. Putting some distance between himself and the Impulse, he fired a barrage from the Freedom's beam cannons. Shinn brought the Impulse's shield up just in time to block the attack and prepared to retaliate. He never got the chance.

The damage to the Destroy's central Scylla caused an explosion that threw the Impulse, rocking Shinn as he fought to steady his machine. At the same time, the shots from the Freedom, dodged by Shinn, struck the Destroy's knee, a weak spot as it was uncovered by its anti-beam defenses, and its Phase-Shift proved unable to ward off the blow. The already damaged mobile armor's leg collapsed under its weight, and the behemoth began to fall.

Slowly, the Impulse landed behind the fallen mobile armor, and Shinn left the cockpit. Climbing into the Destroy's cockpit, he found Stella, unconscious and bleeding.

"Stella...Stella..." he called her name, tears flowing from his eyes as he spoke. "How...how could this happen."

Stella stirred at the sound of his voice, and her eyes opened, albeit slowly.

- "Shinn..." she said weakly. "You...came to...see me."

Shinn nodded, unable to say anything. Stella reached slowly upwards, and he clasped her hand in his own.  
>"Shinn...you said...you'd protect me." she said, and she winced in pain from her injuries.<p>

- "Stella!" Shinn cried. "Stay with me, please. Don't..."

- "Shinn." Stella said softly. "I...love...you." Her eyes closed, and her head fell back. Her arm went limp, and as Shinn released her hand it fell slowly to her side.

- "STELLA!" Shinn yelled helplessly.

It was just like when his family died, and he had been helpless to save them. Just like when Rey was killed, and he had been unable to prevent it.  
>And there, amidst the ruins of a city, with the woman he loved in his arms, he screamed in anguish as he was powerless to stop her from slipping away.<p> 


	21. Phase 21: The World Revealed

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **Suprise! Two Chapters going up this time!

This Chapter closes the curtain on the Destroy Incident, as well as setting the stage for the conclusion of this particular arc in the next chapter. So it roughly parallels Episode 33. However, while a few of the key events of that episode remain, its beginning is completely new.

* * *

><p><strong>PHASE 21: The World Revealed<strong>

**Hamburg, Eurasian Federation**

_'I swore I'd protect her...and now...'_ Shinn thought as he held Stella in his arms, tears flowing down his face. Some part of him still refused to accept that Stella could be dead. He removed his glove and, very gently, laid his finger on her neck, checking for a pulse.

His heart skipped a beat. _He felt a pulse!_ It was extremely faint, but definite - she was still alive!

He knew she had to get medical treatment, and fast, or else she really would die. He debated taking her back to the ship, but dismissed the idea immediately.  
>During the battle, he'd seen two black mobile suits he thought he'd recognized from the battle with the Alliance and Orb in the Med. A mobile suit's range was not long, so they had to have come from a base or a ship nearby. Maybe even...<p>

He stood, carefully lifting her as he did, and clambered out of the mobile armor's cockpit. Just as carefully, he stepped off to the ground. As he did so, he heard the rumble of thrusters, and looked up as the same two black mobile suits landed, one to either side of the Impulse.

Nearby, the _Minerva_ had landed. With the battle over, ZAFT and surviving Eurasian Forces spread out in the city, as relief efforts began. Standing at the window, his fists clenched, Yzak looked out at the devastation.

"This is just...have the Naturals completely lost their fucking minds?" He asked aloud to nobody in particular.

- "It sure looks like it." Arthur said as he walked up. "I have to say, sir, I don't know what we can accomplish by fighting these kinds of battles. I understand the Chairman wants to coexist with the Naturals instead of repeating the mistakes of the last war, but if there are people we have to eliminate, shouldn't we do it right away? Otherwise, I don't see this war ending for a long time...if ever."

- "You may have a point." Yzak said. Then he turned back to the console. "What's the word on the Impulse? Any movement?"

- "No, sir" Abby replied. "It's still stationary near the destroyed mobile armor. Two Eurasian Forces mobile suits are closing in on it."

- "What the hell's that moron think he's doing now?..." Yzak grumbled.

At that moment, Abby announced. "Incoming communication, sir! Signals show it's coming from an Alliance carrier!"

- "Put him through." Yzak said shortly, and the monitor showed an older man, a man Yzak recognized. "This is Yzak Joule, commander of the _Minerva_."

"A pleasure to meet you again, Captain." Brennan Marshall replied. "Though I wish it were under different circumstances. President Baum and I are here at Wilhelmshaven Naval Base. I wanted first to thank you for your assistance, and second to offer you the use of our facilities here if you need to repair or resupply your ship."

Yzak pondered the offer. The ship was largely undamaged, though had sustained some hits from the giant mobile armor's indiscriminate attacks. It was nothing that couldn't wait until Gibraltar, and Yzak was about to decline, when Athrun discreetly addressed him.

For his part, Athrun had a theory as to Shinn's curious behavior, and he wanted to play it through.

"Wilhelmshaven's not that far from here; I say let's let this play out - if nothing else, we can at least resupply before heading back to Gibraltar." Athrun said.

"I doubt this is a trap." Heine, who was also present, concurred.

"All right." Yzak nodded. "Marshall at least we know is a man who can be trusted." Yzak then returned to Marshall. "Thank you for your generous offer." he said stiffly, "I appreciate it."

"Not at all." Marshall replied. "It's the least we can do for our allies."

Meanwhile, Shinn was standing at the foot of the Impulse, watching warily as the pilot of one of the black Windams rode a lift cable down from his cockpit and walked towards them, removing his helmet as he did so.

He was dark-eyed and pale, with silver-blonde hair, and somewhat taller than Shinn.

"You're the pilot of that mobile suit?" Sven asked evenly.

"Yeah." Shinn replied, eyeing the other pilot warily.

Sven's eyes shifted from the dark-haired young man to the woman in his arms, whom he recognized as one of the Extendeds that had been onboard the _Jones_. He wondered what she was doing here and why this ZAFT pilot had her. He briefly wondered if this was the same one who had brought her back to the _Jones_ after she'd gone missing while back. It was a strange coincidence if so.

"She needs to get those injuries treated." Sven said flatly, "our ship, the _John Paul Jones_, is moored at Wilhelmshaven. Our CO's offered the use of our facilities to your ship, if you need it."

For a moment, Shinn stood there, motionless. Then he nodded. He carried Stella into the Impulse's cockpit and immediately started up the Impulse and prepared to take off. As he did so, a communication came in from the ship.

"About damn time!" Yzak said shortly as Shinn picked up the communication - sound only, which Yzak noticed.

- "The mobile armor is destroyed." Shinn replied. "No damage to the Impulse." There was something in his tone of voice that told Yzak that Shinn wasn't telling them everything.

- "Well done. The ship is going to head to Wilhelmshaven Naval Base for emergency repairs and resupply. Get the Impulse airborne and meet us there."

- "Roger that." Shinn replied, and cut the link. The Impulse, flanked by the two Windams, took off, and the _Minerva_ followed.

The mobile suits arrived first, and Shinn immediately recognized the _Jones_ - a carrier they had faced several times in battle.  
>The two Windams landed on the carrier's deck, and Shinn did likewise. He climbed down out of the Impulse's cockpit, Stella in his arms, and he saw a group of medics with a gurney waiting. His expression hardened when he recognized the woman, Kinney.<p>

Her own shock at learning that Stella was here in Germany was compounded by the unexpected reunion with this dark young man who twice - no, three times now, she realized - had saved her life.

She realized that if Stella was here, she had to have been piloting that monstrosity, and silently cursed Rice and O'Donnell for putting her through this. Her only satisfaction was that, with that land battleship obliterated by the ZAFT ship, both of them were probably dead.

"I'm a little surprised to see you again." she said tentatively. Shinn, glaring at her, did not reply. Carefully, he laid Stella on the gurney, and stepped back. He turned again to look at her.  
>"I'm sorry." Kinney said sincerely. Shinn's expression softened somewhat, as he guessed correctly that the woman had not had a say in the decision to make Stella the pilot of the Destroy. She had not even known.<p>

- "Just make sure she survives." He said sharply. Then he turned away, as much to hide his tears as anything else, and headed back towards the Impulse.

Athrun was standing outside, leaning on the balustrade and watching the devastated city of Hamburg go by as the ship slowly headed out. He shook his head, appalled at the devastation he saw. A short while later the ship arrived at Wilhelmshaven, where he was altogether not surprised to see the _Jones_, nor the Impulse on its deck. It struck him as slightly incongruous that a ZAFT machine looked so perfectly at home standing in between two Windams on a Spengler-class carrier's deck. It reminded him once again how similar the Impulse was in design and capability to the Alliance's own mobile suits - being so similar to the old Strike.

As he watched, the Impulse took off from the deck, and as the _Minerva_ set down and came in to dock a short distance down from the _Jones_, the catapult opened to allow the machine to enter. Athrun turned and headed inside, leaning on a crutch as he did so.

Later on he, along with Yzak and Shinn, headed outside and down to the base, where they were met by President Baum himself, along with Vice-President Marshall and a battle-scarred officer of the Alliance named McCaffrey.

- "I wanted to offer you all my thanks for all of your efforts." Baum said gratefully after introductions were completed. "Particularly to you, young man." He added, addressing Shinn.

- "Thank you, sir." Shinn said, his expression neutral, though Athrun thought he caught something in his glance.

- "Well, I will be speaking with Chairman Durendal later today, and I will certainly make sure to tell him how critical your ship, Captain Joule, and your young pilot were to ending this situation. In the meantime if you need anything, the full resources of this base are at your disposal." Baum said, then turned to leave. Yzak nodded and turned to leave as well, followed by Athrun.

McCaffrey looked at Shinn, who hung back a step. And the scarred old veteran addressed him. "I also wanted to thank you, young man. Also, Dr. Kinney asked me to pass along a message: her condition is stabilized. Treatment will take time, but she'll make it."

- "Thank you." Shinn said gratefully. He shook the older man's hand, then turned to follow Yzak and Athrun.

- "What was that about?" Yzak muttered, addressing Athrun as he glanced back at Shinn over his shoulder. Athrun did not reply, but he knew precisely what that was about, and there was a small smile on his face as the three headed back to their ship.

Several days passed. Repairs to the _Minerva_ were completed quickly enough, and Gibraltar had ordered them to stand by for now. A supply ship had been sent north with replacement mobile suit parts, allowing them to repair the ZAKU. Athrun wanted to talk to Shinn about what had happened during the battle, and so he headed to his quarters and knocked at the door.

"Shinn. You have a moment?" He asked. The door opened, and he walked in. Shinn was seated at his desk, the computer on. Heine was standing behind him, looking over his shoulder. Recovered from his own injuries, Heine had dispensed with the crutch he had used, though he still walked with a slight limp.

"What are you two doing?" Athrun asked. Heine saluted briefly, which Athrun returned.

- "Shinn - it's Athrun." Heine addressed the other.

- "Yeah, what is it?" Shinn asked without looking up. Athrun shook his head. Then, as he looked at the screen, whatever he had been about to say was driven completely from his mind.

- "Is that...the Freedom?"

- "Uh-huh..." Shinn replied vaguely. Then he swore under his breath. "Damn...why can't I beat it?"

- "It reacts incredibly fast when the camera turns towards it...impressive use of thrusters as well - he flies it like it was an extension of his own body." Heine commented, thinking of how swiftly the Freedom had disarmed his own GOUF Ignited when they faced it.

- "The Freedom is more powerful than the Impulse - or even the Saviour." Shinn said thoughtfully, glancing at Athrun over his shoulder. "Yet he controls it so easily...how does he do it?"

- "Shinn, Heine...what are you two doing?" Athrun asked, concerned.

- "Isn't it obvious?" Shinn replied. "I'm running a combat simulation against the Freedom. You got a problem with that?"

- "Why would you want to do something like that?" Athrun asked.

- "Because it's strong." Shinn said simply. "I've been doing some research, and as far as I know, the Freedom is the most powerful mobile suit in existence anywhere - so if I want to improve my skills, I can't think of a better opponent to practice against." Shinn had an ulterior motive in wanting to be able to defeat the Freedom, however: Revenge. The Freedom had killed Rey, it had nearly killed Stella. And it had been the mobile suit that fired the shot that killed his parents and his little sister, years before.

- "Besides, in case anything happens, we might have to fight against him again. And I think it's important that _somebody_ at ZAFT knows how to take him down." He said. "As it stands, nobody knows what it'll do next."

- "Shinn's line of thinking makes a good deal of sense." Heine interjected. "The Freedom is powerful; old friend of yours or not, I don't know what his intentions are, but he is not part of our forces."

- "Maybe so, but Kira is not our enemy." Athrun protested.

- "Isn't he? What makes you say that?" Shinn asked, his tone rising. "He attacked our ship at the Dardanelles, and quite apart from killing Rey, a number of our crew lost their lives because of him, remember? And he damn near killed you, too."

Unsure of what to say, Athrun did not reply.

"Ultimately, it's up to Headquarters or the Supreme Council to tell us who we fight. And I know you'd rather not fight him, but I still think we should be ready in case we have to." Heine added, "In light of your own past experience, we'd be grateful for any assistance you could give us.

Athrun hesitated. He thought of the battle, and then he remembered their conversation after the battle in the Dardanelles. Kira had made his intentions clear enough when they had spoken; And, as much as Athrun disliked it, he had chosen to oppose the PLANTs.  
>Heine was right - they would probably have to fight him again...<p>

In the PLANTs, Gilbert Durendal was in his office. A television crew was in place, and Meer sat nearby. Then the broadcast began, and he began to speak.

"Good day everyone. I am Gilbert Durendal, the Chairman of the PLANT Supreme Council." He began. This broadcast was going out worldwide, to every nation on Earth as well as the PLANTs. "I know it may appear unseemly for me to be broadcasting such a message at this time, when a state of war still exists between the PLANTs and the people of Earth. However I must ask you to forgive me, and to listen to what I have to say."

Onboard the _Minerva_, Abby advised Yzak of the broadcast, and immediately Yzak ordered the monitor turned on, and the address broadcast throughout the ship. Onboard the _Archangel_, hidden some distance away, Murrue likewise saw the broadcast, as did everyone on the bridge, and wondered at the strange timing of this announcement.

"I would like for all of you to understand something." Durendal said. "I would like to explain the real reason this war has not yet come to an end - the truth of why we even found ourselves once again at war in the first place." The image on the screen changed, displaying images of the Destroy being attacked by ZAFT mobile suits, which it effortlessly destroyed. "These images, as some of you may know, were taken a few days ago when the Atlantic Federation's new superweapon emerged from Central Eurasia and advanced westward. It attacked without warning, and three cities were completely destroyed.. As soon as we became aware of it, ZAFT forces, alongside forces mobilized by President Baum, engaged the weapon in battle. Though we succeeded in stopping it, millions of lives were lost."

"Why did this happen?" Durendal asked, standing from his desk, his tone rising. "Who says that peace between us is not permitted, that the PLANTs and the Earth must fight?"

"It is a fact," Meer spoke up next, stepping forward into the camera, "that this war was begun with a single horrific act, one that was perpetrated by a handful of Coordinators. We will never forget that we were unable to prevent it, or the tragedies that resulted."

Watching the broadcast, Athrun frowned, remembering that Kira had told him Lacus had been killed by Coordinators. Again he wondered whether Durendal knew - whatever he had told Kira, there was a doubt.

"However, how can we allow things to remain as they are now? Haven't we seen enough suffering from this endless cycle of hatred?" she continued, and even Athrun had to admit that her performance was convincing. "I believe from the bottom of my heart that if you could please just listen to what the other side has to say, you can look ahead with hope, to a world of true, lasting peace. And I believe that this is the desire of people everywhere."

Throughout the Eurasian Federation, and even in many places in the Atlantic Federation and Republic of East Asia, the people applauded this passionate appeal. However, not all of them felt so, and in his stronghold, Teivel Jibril was panicking.

"What is going on, here? Stop that broadcast now!" He raged.

- "What's the meaning of this, Jibril?" Bruno Azrael asked over their communications line. "Where is Durendal going with this sermon?"

- "This problem is on your shoulders, now deal with it!" said one of the others. But no matter what he tried, he could not get the broadcast off the air.

"Unfortunately," Durendal now said, "there have always been those who at all costs would prevent such harmony. They have been with us since antiquity, demanding that people fight - because of the profits that can be generated. "You're a coward if you don't fight, and you're a traitor if you don't follow orders," they say as they hand you the weapons, inventing enemies out of whole cloth - and it is clear that they are the ones behind this latest tragedy."

"SHUT IT DOWN! CUT THAT BROADCAST OFF AT ONCE, DAMN IT!" Jibril screamed, increasingly angrily as on the screen Durendal continued to speak.

"The organization Blue Cosmos is well-known; a terrorist group who detest Coordinators, referring to them as dangerous mistakes or monsters who should not be allowed to exist. But what you do not know is that it was created by these same individuals, who hide in the shadows, fabricating new enemies and ensuring war is constantly raging somewhere...the very same ones whose political influence has shaped the policies of the Atlantic Federation for decades. They are merchants of death: The military-industrial complex, Logos! They are the true enemies of anyone who hopes for peace."

As Durendal spoke, Jibril and his cohorts watched in helpless horror as the screen changed and each and every one of them was identified on the screen, their image and their name plainly visible.

"He did it," Yzak mumbled, remembering their conversation long before in Bandirma, "The crafty son of a bitch actually went public with this."  
>Elsewhere on the ship, the reaction was mixed, most surprised, many optimistic. With the true enemy revealed, perhaps now the war could be brought to an end. The screen changed again, once more showing Durendal and Meer.<p>

"From the bottom of my heart," Durendal concluded, "I wish for a world that never again knows the scourge of war. And so since Logos continues to block our efforts, I will take this opportunity to announce a global military campaign, with the specific goal of eliminating it and its members!"

The broadcast ended, and Shinn smiled. These were the monsters responsible for everything that had happened. They were the ones who had done those horrible things to Stella, and to countless others. And now, they would finally get what was coming to them. A global military campaign, the Chairman had said. With the _Minerva_ on Earth, it seemed a sure bet that they would be asked to take part. He hoped it would be soon.

While the mood onboard the _Minerva_ and in all of ZAFT's installations on Earth was positive, and the people in the Eurasian Federation - especially the survivors of the recent attack in the Western Eurasia - were likewise throwing their support behind Gilbert Durendal and his stated goal to eradicate the warmongers of Logos, in Orb, the broadcast had a very different effect, especially at the estate of the Seiran family. Unato Ema Seiran, his son Yuma, and many of their supporters within the government were gathered at the family's palatial villa, where months before the reception had taken place after the treaty was signed with the Eurasian Federation.

There was worry etched in every line of Unato's face, as he considered recent events. After the near-destruction of the Orb fleet in the Mediterranean Sea, their influence within the Council of Emirs had all but evaporated, and it had taken considerable efforts on his part and on that of his remaining allies to dissuade Cagalli from arresting the both of them on the spot. However, she had used the incident to strip them both of their positions on the Council. Although as the patriarch of one of Orb's Ruling families he continued to enjoy the discreet support of many within the military and political structure, their own ability to steer the course of government in Orb was nearly gone.

Unato sensed Rondo Mina Sahaku's handiwork, and seethed at the reversal; the Seiran and Sahaku families had never been allied, but as an enemy of Uzumi Nara Athha in his own right her late brother had at least tolerated the Seirans' own machinations. But Mina had proven an even more devious political manipulator than he had been, and by allying herself with Athha's brat she had made it possible for that treaty, severely undercutting his own efforts. And now...

"What's going on, Father?" Unato asked in an undertone, stepping up to him as he did so. "They've even identified the Ritter Group and the Gröht Family on that list." Two of the Seirans' strongest remaining supporters had been the Ritter Group, which manufactured equipment and weapons for Orb's police and military forces, and the Gröht family - not one of the Five ruling noble families, but still of some influence, and like the Seirans one with ties to the Alliance. Many other prominent figures in Orb had also been identified, including the Seirans themselves, and Unato Ema Seiran was not sure what to do...

Neither, for that matter, was Cagalli Yula Athha, who at that moment was in Orb's Cabinet building, meeting with the Council. She too had seen the broadcast, and as the screen was turned off she saw the general consternation of many members of the Council.  
>Her expression worried, she turned to Rondo Mina Sahaku, who sat nearby.<p>

"The Seirans are on that list. Along with a lot of Orb's most influential citizens." She started to say.

- "Not just that either - many of these are multinational entities with strong ties to a number of nations on Earth, including the Kingdom of Scandinavia and the Equatorial Union." Mina replied. Cagalli nodded, her expression apprehensive. If Durendal's stated goal of a global military campaign was correct, then that could only mean...

- "This is going to be big trouble." She said apprehensively. She only hoped that she was wrong, and she wondered with some dread what Kira would do next...


	22. Phase 22: Angel Down

**PHASE 22: Angel Down**

**Aprilius One, PLANT.**

The twelve men and women who made up the PLANT Supreme Council sat around the great circular table that was their customary meeting place. Some were muttering among themselves, and many glanced at the impassive face of Gilbert Durendal, the Council Chairman. Notable among these were Ezalia Joule of the National Defense Committee and Eileen Canaver of the Diplomatic Committee.

Finally, Durendal stood, and the muttering ceased.

"I do apologize for the commotion I have caused. However, the broadcast made my intentions clear, and I do plan to follow through with them." He began, glancing from one face to the other. Canaver looked suspicious. Many others concerned or irritated. Ezalia Joule alone kept her face an expressionless mask, concealing her apprehensions.

"I would like you to reflect upon the words of hope I voiced when we decided to go to war to defend ourselves. We must ensure that the reason we once again take up arms is to bring an end to all battles."  
>There was renewed muttering around the room, and Durendal waited a few moments before continuing. "Our true enemy is neither the Alliance, nor the Naturals; it is Logos, and we must once and for all escape the system of never-ending war that they have created. Unless we do, all of this will happen again."<p>

- "I concur." came the reply from Louise Leitner. "But that is easier said than done."

- "That may be so," Durendal replied, "but it is the only avenue open to us. Otherwise, this war will never end."

- "The Chairman has my approval." Ezalia spoke next, her expression still neutral, her tone firm. "This time, let us put an end to this war, permanently."

Other members of the Supreme Council soon followed; eventually, even Canaver consented.

- "I thank you all." Durendal said, nodding. Though his expression was impassive, inwardly Durendal smiled. His goal was now one step closer to fruition.

**Eurasian Federation  
>LCAM-01XA <strong>**_Archangel _**

After the fall of the Destroy, the _Archangel _had left Hamburg, retreating to a position further away where they would be able to hide and regroup until an opportunity to return north towards the Kingdom of Scandinavia.

At the moment, Murre was had several issues that were pressing on her mind, but one in particular was what they should do now. And as she stood on the bridge, it was this issue that she was discussing with Kira, Andrew, and several others.  
>It was Kira who finally voiced a sentiment that she herself had also been feeling.<p>

"Miss Murrue." Kira said. "We should go back."

- "Go back? You mean, to Orb." She asked, looking at him.

- "Yes." he assented. "I have a feeling...that something big is about to happen; unlike anything we've ever seen before. And I think we have to go back."

- "Right." she nodded. "I agree as well."  
>Andrew likewise indicated his agreement, and before long, launch preparations were complete, and the <em>Archangel <em>took flight, remaining at low altitude as it wended its way up towards the coast, heading northwest.

However, despite their hopes their departure was not unmarked.

A ZAFT AWACS-DINN was in the air, and the moment the _Archangel _was on the move its long-range detection equipment picked up the ship's distinctive thermal signature and relayed it to its mothership - the Lesseps-class land battleship _Uhlenbeck, _commanded by a veteran of the Bloody Valentine War called Willard.

Like the ships of the Gardner and Lyman Teams, the _Uhlenbeck _was one of what was unofficially called the "Type-II" Lesseps-class developed after the Bloody Valentine War. Unlike the original, these ships were retrofitted with heavy caterpillar-treads to allow movement over denser terrain than was efficiently possible with a scale system. The trade-off was the sacrifice of the ship's naval capabilities. Currently, the tread-equipped Lesseps Type-II accounted for roughly 40% the total number of ships of the class in ZAFT service. A pair of GaZuOOTs stood on its upper decks.

On the ship's bridge, the communications officer suddenly spoke.  
>"Message from AWACS 006; unknown contact detected, Section 3, point 1-8-3-6."<p>

- "Check thermal pattern for a match." Commander Willard ordered.

- "Checking now, sir. thermal pattern matches the sample we were given, sir. It's the _Archangel!"_

_- "_Update the database - that ship is not an unknown, it is an enemy. Contact Headquarters immediately."

- "Yes, sir!"

- "I knew they'd make a move." Willard muttered to himself. He was glad they had revealed themselves and made their move, and he looked forward to his part in what was coming next...

**LHM-BB01 ****_Minerva. _**

"Message from Fleet Headquarters sir!" Abby announced on the _Minerva_'s bridge. In the wake of Durendal's announcement, activity onboard the ship had redoubled in intensity as emergency external repairs and resupply continued in preparation for the return trip to Gibraltar.

At the moment, it was Arthur who had the conn, and he stepped forward to her console to read the message.

"_Minerva_ is ordered to provide support in Operation Angel Down, commencing immediately." he read. "And a set of coordinates...what is this?" He asked. "Relay it to the Captain in his quarters." He ordered, and she complied.  
>In his quarters, the beeping of his personal terminal woke Yzak, who had been dozing in his bunk, his jacket draped carelessly over the back of the chair behind his desk. He read the message, and as he did so, he imagined he could almost feel a twinge in his old scar. His lips turned upwards in a satisfied smirk, and he grabbed for his jacket, putting it on before he headed up to the bridge.<p>

"I have the conn." He announced. "What's our status?"

- "External repairs were completed six hours ago, sir." Arthur reported. "We are still expecting additional supplies, but..."

- "They'll have to wait. Notify the Port authority. The _Minerva_ is heading out. Arthur, you have the coordinates we are headed for; as soon as we're out, take us to Condition Yellow and plot a course."

Meanwhile, Willard marshaled his forces, preparing for the attack and, when the time came, he deployed his forces, BuCUEs and GOUF Igniteds, which launched and immediately attacked the _Archangel._

As soon as the attack began, Kira left the bridge, heading to the hangar to launch in the Freedom. Nor was he the only one. Juri Wu Nien immediately headed down to the hangar as well.  
>She was making for the Buster, as usual, but she turned instead to a different machine in the hangar, opting for it instead. Soon, both machines were out of the hangar.<p>

As Kira took up a position above and behind the _Archangel, _he felt himself enter that state of enhanced awareness that he so often experienced in battle; he was determined that the _Archangel _make it to the coast.  
>On the bridge, Murrue was focusing on keeping her ship moving and staving off the enemy mobile suits' attacks. The ship's 75mm CIWS came to life with a sound like a dozen buzzsaws, filling the air with shells that intercepted the incoming missiles fired by the BuCUEs racing along the ground below.<p>

"Ten to port; keep us in the shadow of the plateau!" Murrue ordered, and Neumann, at the helm, complied, turning the ship. "Counterattack with the Valiants!"

As the ship turned, its enormous 110cm linear cannons fired into the formation of BuCUEs, the shots carefully targeted so as to not strike the enemy machines directly - a fruitless effort, as the speedy and agile BuCUEs anticipated and dodged the attack easily. Above the ship's rear deck, the Aile Strike, armed with a bazooka, added its own fire to the barrage, careful to steer clear of the line of fire of the ship's own weapons.

Above, Kira moved in on a pair of GOUF Igniteds, severing their arms and depriving them of their beam rifles, before taking off their heads with a pair of snap shots from his own rifle. Still more GOUF Igniteds attacked, forcing him to retreat.

Far above and behind the battle, the AWACS DINN continued relaying footage of the battle to the _Uhlenbeck, _where Willard watched the battle unfold. Then he ordered the ship's big dual cannons to fire on the _Archangel_, and several shots impacted the ship. Below, the enemy mobile suits continued their onslaught, firing another barrage of missiles. Firing from almost directly below the ship, more of them were able to slip past the vessel's CIWS, impacting the underside of its hull.

Yet for all that, the ship continued to move.  
>They had to get to the coast; if they could get to the coast, they were home free, as the ZAFT ships would not be able to pursue them underwater.<p>

"Damn..." Kira swore as he saw the pounding the ship was continuing to take. He deployed the Freedom's "Xiphias" railguns and fired at the attacking BuCUEs, while at the same time Juri countered with the Strike's bazooka.  
>The BuCUEs fell back, the attacks hitting the ground in front of the retreating mobile suits.<p>

"Will someone tell me what's going on here? Why is ZAFT suddenly targeting us?" Murrue asked.

- "Not really relevant right now. At this rate, they're going to surround us any second now." Andrew Waltfeld reported from the CIC. "Eight BuCUEs coming in from 3 o'clock, nine GOUFs from 10 o'clock."  
>The screen suddenly lit up as new contacts appeared - the enemy mobile suits were firing.<p>

- "Incoming missiles!"

- "Evade them!" Murrue ordered. The ship's CIWS activated, and from his position, Kira engaged the Freedom's targeting systems and fired a full burst from all the Freedom's weapons, intercepting the missiles' trajectory. Every last projectile was destroyed, and he turned his rifle on the BuCUEs, carefully targeting the mobile suits' legs.

When the GOUF Igniteds closed in, he evaded their attack, while below Juri in the Strike fired the last of its bazooka rounds. The GOUFs easily evaded the slow-moving shells, and Juri discarded the weapon. However, Kira took advantage of the opening, shooting the arms off the attacking mobile suits, depriving them of their weapons.

"Target has advanced ten to the northwest. All GOUF Igniteds damaged, they're returning." The CIC onboard the _Uhlenbeck_ reported.

- "No wonder the Freedom and the _Archangel _are so highly spoken of." Willard commented. "Tell our mobile suit teams not to be overly reckless - otherwise, we won't last until the _Minerva _gets here."

- "Sir, because we're playing it safe and trying to box it in, we're the ones getting cornered here!" His XO commented. He was a younger man - too young. "I say forget the _Minerva_ and let's just attack with everything!"

Willard scoffed.  
>- "You have no idea what happened at Alaska and Jachin Due, do you?" He asked.<p>

- "Sir?"

- "It would be a critical mistake on our part if we moved too hastily and it got away as a result." Willard said. "In accordance with our orders, we'll let the _Minerva_ approach them, and have our ace pilot take care of it from there." There was a hint of disdain in Willard's tone as he spoke.

Onboard the _Minerva, _which at that very moment was en route, the mood was tense. The details of Operation Angel Down had been relayed to Yzak, who had then summoned Shinn, Athrun, and Heine to the briefing room.  
>All three of them came in - first Shinn, a confident expression on his face, followed by Heine. Athrun came in last, still needing the crutch to move. Even if he had a mobile suit onboard to use, he was in no condition to pilot.<p>

"All right." Yzak started. "Headquarters has ordered us to participate in an operation code-name Angel Down, which began some ten minutes ago. We are en route to the theater of operations, where the Willard Team is currently engaging the _Archangel. _Our orders are simple: Assist the Willard Team, and bring that ship down."

A strained silence fell over the room. Athrun looked shocked and angered. Heine glanced from him to Shinn, who had a sort of satisfied look on his face. The younger man glanced at Athrun, then turned back to Yzak, who continued. "Shinn. The repairs on our mobile suits aren't finished yet, so you'll be flying solo again. Your job is to keep the Freedom at bay, while we will engage the _Archangel _ship-to-ship."

- "Yes, sir." Shinn said, nodding as he did so.

- "Then beat it. Be ready for immediate takeoff as soon as we're in range."

- "Right." Shinn acquiesced, and turned on his heels. With a sidelong glance at Athrun, he left. Heine soon followed.  
>Shinn changed into his pilot's suit, grabbing his helmet as he did so. Once he was ready, he moved to the ready room. Heine was there, as was Lunamaria.<p>

- "You okay?" Heine asked.

- "Yeah. Thanks." Shinn said, and Lunamaria, looking at him, wondered about the confident expression on Shinn's face, especially given that from what Heine had been telling her when Shinn walked in, he was going to be engaging the Freedom one-on-one.

"What's going on here, Yzak?" Athrun asked his old friend when the two were alone. "The Chairman talked about going after Logos, right. So how does that translate into us attacking the _Archangel?!"_

- "How the fuck should I know?" Yzak replied shortly.

- "But this doesn't make any sense! You have to contact Headquarters and..."

- "I've already done that, dumbass!" Yzak interrupted, his temper getting the better of him. "This order comes straight from the top. You and I both know what that means!"  
>Athrun took a step back, shocked. If Durendal himself had given that order, then...<p>

"They have never clearly declared their intentions, and all they have done since showing up is confuse the situation, escalate the conflict, and get people killed." Yzak continued. "The Supreme Council has decided that given the current situation, they represent a threat that has to be dealt with."

- "But Kira wouldn't..."

- "Yeah, right! And I'm sure it was someone else who attacked this ship and killed twelve people in the Dardanelles, right?" Yzak snapped in response. "Look, I understand you not wanting to fight your old buddy - again. Tough shit. If you don't want to watch, then stay in your cabin."

Yzak left the briefing room, heading up to the bridge. As he did, he pondered the monumental task that lay ahead of him. _'But against that ship and that mobile suit, it'll take a fucking miracle to come out in one piece.'_

"Captain," Arthur announced when Yzak reached the bridge. "We're receiving the feed from AWACS 006, from Willard's Team. It's on the monitor, sir."

- "Good." Yzak said, glancing at the screen. "Lower the bridge. Upgrade to Condition Red - prep for anti-ship, possible anti-MS combat."

Abby broadcast the change to Condition Red, relaying the order for all pilots to standby aboard their machines. A bit of a joke, since only one machine was launching.

"Activating CIWS, Tristans, and Isoldes." Arthur said as the ship's weapons systems began to come online. "Load Launchers 1 through 6 with Parsifals, 7 through 10 with Dispars."

- "Belay that." Yzak interrupted. "I want Parsifals in all launchers. Load a full volley of ECM rounds in Isolde One, and Wolfram in all bow tubes."

- "Right." Arthur acknowledged, and the modified orders were executed.

- "Hangar reports the Impulse is on standby." Abby reported.

- "Twenty to attack point; enemy contact imminent." Bart reported.

- "Fire ECM shells! Send out the Impulse!" Yzak ordered

The Isolde fired, three rounds that streaked across the battlefield and detonated high above and ahead. With the advent of the Neutron Jammer, the only reliable means of detection most vessels had - except for sonar in the case of naval and submersible targets - were thermal or infrared sensors. And the three jamming rounds that the _Minerva _had fired were designed specifically to temporarily overwhelm the thermal sensors of another vessel - though great care had to be taken not to fry their own sensors as well, and regardless a firm sensor lock would be temporarily impossible.

It worked. When the shells detonated, the _Archangel_'s sensors were overpowered. It was only a temporary effect - a few minutes at the most. But it was enough, so that when the Impulse shot from the _Minerva'_s catapult, it did so undetected. Then the central catapult launched the Storm Silhouette. This time, to minimize its weight the wing-mounted missile launchers had been removed. As soon as it docked, Shinn shot off, heading towards his target.

"Start the attack!" Yzak barked. "All starboard launchers, fire!" Nobody questioned the order. Every one of the _Minerva_'s five starboard-mounted four-tube launchers fired, a volley of missiles streaking in towards the general area in which the _Archangel _was located. Without needing to be told, the tubes were reloaded, and conventional anti-ship artillery shells were loaded into the Isolde. The enemy's next move, Yzak mused, would decide the outcome.

Kira had been flying in close to the _Archangel, _and when the missiles came in, was forced to break off to evade or shoot down the ones that came too close. He was about to rejoin it when the attack came from above, as the Impulse streaked in, firing first its two shoulder-mounted "Fenris" beam guns, then its beam rifle.  
>Kira dodged the attacks easily, but the Impulse was now positioned between him and the <em>Archangel.<em>

The real battle, he realized, was just beginning.

The _Archangel, _meanwhile, continued her course. The ship was hugging the plateau, and as it turned they suddenly saw, rounding the bluff in the opposite direction, directly ahead of them a mere two thousand meters away, the _Minerva. _

It seemed to materialize out of the fog, and with their sensors temporarily offline, they had had no warning. The _Minerva _opened fire with its bow-mounted Isolde triple cannon.  
>At the helm, Neumann cranked the wheel hard over and the <em>Archangel <em>pivoted onto its starboard side, narrowly avoiding the shells. The ship began to slip past the _Minerva._

On the _Minerva'_s bridge, Yzak smirked. '_You played your hand, and you blew it.' _ He thought jubilantly.

"Fire Tristans and every port-side missile launcher at the _Archangel."_ Two of the three 230cm dual beam cannons mounted to the _Minerva's _bow pivoted ninety degrees and fired. At the same time, one by one each of the ship's starboard-mounted five four-tube missile launchers unleashed their payload, the missiles leaving their tubes and slamming into the exposed underside of the _Archangel' _

By the time the ship was past the _Minerva, _its underside had been struck in precisely the same spot by five four-shot missile salvoes, plus a volley from the two dual beam cannons.

Once the ship was level, the first thing Murrue did was ask for a damage report. The news was not good - the unexpected attack had caused catastrophic damage to the hangar, including nearly totally destroying the couple of remaining mobile suits.  
>"Why...why did they have to send <em>that <em>ship?" Murrue asked rhetorically to nobody in particular.

- "That's certainly bad news for us." Waltfeld commented. "Can we still submerge if we seal the bulkheads?"

- "Maybe." came the reply from Neumann at the helm. "But we won't be able to go deep - we'd have to stay just below the surface."

- "In either case, we have to make it to the sea..." Murrue said, hoping that this was still possible.

Behind them, the _Minerva _turned about, then continued the pursuit.

The _Archangel _fired as it retreated, a full barrage from the "Helldart" light missile launchers mounted behind its superstructure. The missiles shot from their launchers, raining down on the _Minerva, _rocking the ship, but none striking it - the ones that weren't intercepted by the ship's CIWS simply missed.  
>"It's all right. If we stay precisely on course, they won't hit us." Yzak commented. "In fact, they're not even trying to hit us."<p>

- "What? They're not?" Arthur exclaimed. Yzak ignored him.

- "Counterattack. Load all launchers with Parsifals, and fire one through four." Yzak ordered, and moments later the attack continued, as the _Minerva _pursued its quarry.

The _Archangel_'s CIWS intercepted the missile strike, but the follow-up attack from the Isolde cannon pounded the ship's battered hull.

Kira meanwhile was still engaged against the Impulse, which continued to press him, preventing him from linking up with the _Archangel.  
><em>"Damn it! The _Archangel!" _Kira swore as he saw what happened. Increasing altitude, Kira accelerated, attempting to outrun the Impulse and get past him, but from below Shinn fired the beam rifle, cutting across the Freedom's path and forcing Kira to break off.

- "You're not getting away!" Shinn spat as the Storm Impulse climbed, its speed nearly matching its opponent's. As the Impulse shot forward, closing in on the Freedom, Kira fired the rifle, only for the Impulse to block his attack.

In a detached corner of his mind, Kira was impressed with the tenacity of his opponent, and while the Freedom had the overall advantage in firepower and mobility, he'd yet to land any hits on the other machine. Adjusting his aim, he fired again, aiming to take off its head.

This time, the Impulse did not block the attack. When Shinn saw the Freedom level the rifle, he knew what was coming. He nudged the controls, and the Impulse's head shifted sideways just slightly.

To Kira's surprise, his attack slipped past his opponent's head, missing by mere millimeters.

"You've had it easy up to now, but _DON'T THINK YOU'RE TAKING ME DOWN!" _Shinn roared as he felt, as he had a few times before, his awareness of the battlefield expand, and as if the enemy unit was telegraphing its movements, he was able to determine an instant ahead of time how it would move or aim.  
>He still wasn't sure what this meant. But it was an advantage he was planning to use. When the Freedom fired again, he shifted the Impulse's position, dodging the attacks by seconds and continuing to close in.<p>

Frustratingly, Kira opened the gap, using the Freedom's superior maneuverability to stave off the Impulse, and Shinn's own counterattack with the rifle and Fenris cannons missed. Then the Freedom fired another two-shot volley - rifle arm, then head. Shinn raised the Impulse's right arm, and the first shot slipped below. At the same time, he brought the shield up in front of the Impulse's head, blocking the second shot.

Smirking as he imagined the look of surprise on the enemy pilot's face, Shinn thought back to the conversation with Athrun - if you could call it that - not so long before, when he had been trying to figure out how to beat him.

_"Ultimately, it's up to Headquarters or the Supreme Council to tell us who we fight. And I know you'd rather not fight him, but I still think we should be ready in case we have to. In light of your own past experience, we'd be grateful for any assistance you could give us." _Heine had said. Athrun's reply had been frustratingly vague and, Shinn had felt at the time, totally unhelpful.

_"I'll say only this: Not only does the Freedom totally outclass the Impulse, Kira's one of the best pilots I've ever seen. You're good Shinn, I'll give you that; but so is he, and he's got the advantage of experience; you'll never be able to react fast enough to his attacks...If you're really as good a pilot as you think you are, you'll know what that means."_

He'd thought about it for hours, mulling it over and over as he kept trying to run the simulation, looking for an opening, some way to block or counter the Freedom's devastatingly swift, precise attacks. Finally, he'd figured it out.

_"Heine - I think I've got it. I can't _**_react fast enough _**_to avoid the attack. So I have to move BEFORE he attacks."_

_"Very good, Shinn. If we can anticipate his attacks, we can begin our counter before he even strikes. And I know just how to do that - look closely: he never aims for an opponent's cockpit."_

_"You're right! He always targets the head or the main weapon."_

_"Exactly. And that is how the Impulse can win. Because that pilot will never shoot to kill."_

Except Rey. Heine figured that was an accident - he'd been aiming for the arm, and the ZAKU's move threw off his attack. Shinn didn't really give a damn about justification. That bastard had killed Rey, period. Just like he had tried to kill Stella, like he had nearly killed Athrun.

Just like, years ago, he had killed his family.

And now, Shinn was going to kill him.

This wasn't working. Kira realized that he had little to no chance of beating this opponent from long range. Storing the beam rifle, he drew his beam saber and charged in. Seeing this, Shinn stored his own rifle, drawing a beam saber from the Impulse's hip, and charged as well. He parried the Freedom's attack, then when he struck the Freedom blocked it with its shield, while he likewise blocked the follow-up attack.

Backpedaling, Shinn put some distance between himself and the Freedom, then attacked. He threw his shield at the Freedom, then immediately fired the Fenris beam cannons _at the shield_. The shots rebounded across the shield and at the Freedom. One shot went wide - the second struck its target, gouging out a sizable chunk of its left shoulder.  
>Not giving the enemy a chance to counterattack, Shinn charged in, aiming a vicious slash that, if it connected, would cut the Freedom open.<p>

Kira slipped sideways and counterattacked, a one-two strike with his beam saber that severed the Impulse's head as well as its arm, taking with it the saber. Then he began to put some distance between himself and the Impulse, to try to evade it.

"Abby! Send out a replacement Chest Flyer! And get a Leg Flyer ready." Shinn demanded over the radio as he backpedaled, then accelerated towards the Freedom. As he did so he flipped a switch on his console and the Impulse separated, the Chest Flyer continuing towards the Freedom under its own momentum while he took manual flight control of the Storm Silhouette and Leg Flyer from the Core Splendor's cockpit, at the same time firing the Core Splendor's nose-mounted 20mm machine guns at the Chest Flyer at the instant in slammed into the Chest Flyer exploded, the detonation sending the Freedom reeling.

By that time, the new Chest Flyer had launched and, tracking the Core Splendor, made its way to it. Shinn recombined the four disparate Flyers into the Impulse, then shot off after the Freedom. He drew his remaining beam saber and struck as soon as he caught up.  
>Kira dodged the attack and countered, but again Shinn dodged and, when he tried to evade him, Shinn caught up in seconds.<p>

"I already told you you're not getting away from me, bastard!" Shinn spat. When he struck, a vicious, vertical swipe aimed across the torso, Kira backflipped away from the attack, righting himself instantly and shot forward, aiming a horizontal slash across the Impulse's waist, just below the cockpit.

The Impulse split in half before the blow struck, its legs dropping below as its torso floated over the Freedom. The next instant, Kira was thrown forward as the Freedom's left wing exploded, shot from behind as Shinn fired the "Fenris" beam cannons before manually steering the Leg Flyer back and recombining - having purged it in order to avoid the Freedom's attack.

As the Freedom adjusted its trajectory and attempted to shake off its opponent, Shinn pursued, having stowed the saber and retrieved the rifle, firing at the Freedom as the Impulse closed in.

In spite of the dogged pursuit of the _Minerva, _the _Archangel _was still moving, badly damaged as it was, and rapidly approaching the sea.

"Distance to the coast - ten." Neumann reported.

- "The _Minerva_'s still behind us - they're firing again!" Andy added.

- "Shake them off!" Murrue ordered. "Fire the Helldarts!"  
>The <em>Archangel's <em>Helldarts once again fired, and the smaller missiles collided with the larger Parsifals, detonating many of them. The ship's CIWS took care of the rest, and they continued heading towards the coast.

"Seal off emergency bulkheads and prepare for underwater navigation!" Murrue ordered.

Onboard the _Minerva, _Arthur was starting to panic.  
>"We're almost at the coastline Captain! They're getting away!" he said.<p>

- "No, they're not." Yzak retorted. "Activate the Tannhäuser. Target: the renegade warship _Archangel." _

The _Minerva_'s most powerful weapon slid up and forward from its armored redoubt on the bow, and began to glow as its charge gathered. The few moments it took for the positron cannon to build up to 100% were some of the tensest of Yzak's life, as the _Archangel _broke through and gradually hit the surface of the water, beginning to slide below its depths.

_If they get underwater, they'll probably get away - even as badly damaged as they are. _He thought, his nerves on edge. At last, the charge reached 100%.  
>"FIRE!" Yzak ordered.<p>

Meanwhile, Shinn's pursuit of the Freedom continued, as the other both attempted to fight him off and shake him off.

"I'm taking you out! RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW!" Shinn roared as he drew the beam rifle and fired at the Freedom, following up with a volley from the Fenris cannons.

_'This guy...he keeps coming.' _Kira thought as he blocked the attack. All the same, he was getting closer to the _Archangel's _position. He fired a shot from the Freedom's beam rifle, but the Impulse blocked the attack and counterattacked, destroying the Freedom's rifle.

Shinn stowed the rifle, drawing one of the two "Caliburn" anti-MS beam swords, igniting the weapon, and throwing it.

Kira blocked the attack with the Freedom's shield, but the weight of the weapon threw the Freedom off-balance, creating a narrow opening.

Shinn drew the second Caliburn and slammed the throttles to their stops. The Impulse shot straight towards the Freedom.

At that very instant, a massive explosion expanded behind them, as the attack from the Tannhäuser struck its target.

Because the _Archangel _was moving, it wasn't a head-on blow, but it raked the far starboard side of the ship, taking with it the main engine block on that side of the ship, along with the Valiant, the starboard wing, and tearing open the starboard catapult on the front of the ship. The engine block's explosion raised a wall of steam, and the shockwave slammed into the _Minerva, _tossing the massive ship back like so much flotsam on the crest of a wave.

The explosion distracted Kira for a split second, and in that moment Shinn's Impulse was on him, weapon held out horizontally as he completed his charge.

"No!" Kira exclaimed as he snapped his attention back to the Impulse and brought the shield to bear, at the same time as he thrust the Freedom's beam saber forward, also flipping forward and firing his single remaining "Balaena" plasma beam cannon.  
>The Freedom's blade sliced into the Impulse's head, destroying its main camera and primary sensors. The cannon missed the Impulse itself, but it scored a hit on the Storm Silhouette, tearing off roughly two-thirds of the charging mobile suit's wing.<p>

However, at this point the eighty-five ton Storm Impulse was charging towards the Freedom at its maximum speed, all of its momentum concentrated on the beam-edged tip of its blade, which tore through the shield, the arm, and impaled the Freedom's main body, piercing its reactor. Then, Shinn pulled the blade sideways, and it cut its way out until it came free, exiting out the Freedom's side.

The fatally stricken mobile suit exploded, and the Impulse, itself caught in the blast, was irreparably damaged.

"I...I did it." Shinn said to himself. "I actually did it..."  
>'<em>Mom...Dad...Mayu. Rey...I actually did it.' <em> he thought, as the remains of the Impulse floated over the still, dark waters that had become the grave of Kira Yamato.


	23. Phase 23: Eve of Chaos

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** The next two chapters broadly correspond to episode 35 of the series, and the events depicted therein essentially act as a transition from this point of the story to the next major arc, replacing episodes 36 and 37. The events in those two episodes as depicted in the series do not take place.

* * *

><p><strong>PHASE 23: Eve of Chaos<strong>

**Eurasian Federation  
><strong>**LHM-BB01 _Minerva_**

Quite a crowd had gathered in the _Minerva'_s hangar as the starboard catapult opened for Shinn's return. With the amount of damage the Impulse had taken, the Chest, and Leg Flyers were complete write-offs, as was the Storm Silhouette.

Shinn ejected the wrecked components, and the Core Splendor alone returned to the _Minerva_. The little aircraft landed and Shinn taxied into the hangar, where he stopped. He opened the canopy and clambered out, helmet in hand, and was met first by Vino and Yolant.

"Wow, man. You were awesome out there." Vino said. "I can't believe you defeated the Freedom! Not even Athrun could handle that one!"

- "That was incredible." Lunamaria assented as she and Heine came up to him. She was beaming, and visibly impressed. "You were amazing."

- "Excellent work, Shinn." Heine added, holding out his hand. Shinn shook his hand, smiling gratefully.

- "Thanks, sir." He answered. "But I couldn't have done it without you. You were the one who came up with the strategy."

- "And your skill helped pull it off." Heine replied. "And what have I told you about calling me 'sir'?" He added mock-seriously, to general amusement.

Some distance away, Athrun stood, watching. Shinn spotted him, and shouldering his way through the crowd, walked in his direction. Walking up to him him, he looked at Athrun, and adressed the older pilot.  
>- "I took revenge today." He said. "For both of us."<p>

- "Revenge?" Athrun replied angrily. "You feel pretty proud of yourself, don't you?" Athrun replied. "Wha..."

- "Yeah. And why shouldn't I be? Is it wrong for me to be proud when I defeated a powerful enemy?" Shinn replied. He was somewhat surprised at Athrun's reaction, as if what he'd done was somehow wrong - which it wasn't.

"You bastard! Kira wasn't even trying to kill you! He never tried to kill anyone! Ever!"

"That's bullshit, and you know it." Shinn retorted, his temper rising. "And what's your problem, anyway? Are you pissed because I took him down and you couldn't? Or maybe you'd like it better if I'd been the one to die out there. Well?"

At that, Athrun lost it. All of the emotions he felt, the anger and the grief of Kira's death, came to the surface and, as he faced Shinn, he cut loose with a punch that slammed in the younger man's face. Reeling from the blow, Shinn staggered a couple of steps back, but before he could retaliate, Heine stepped in between them, an angry expression on his face.

- "Shinn, cool it." He said, but Shinn ignored him, glaring at Athrun. The younger man looked like he'd like nothing better to punch Athrun himself, but he restrained himself.

- "He never tried to kill anyone? Just how stupid are you?!" He spat contemptously. "He killed Rey, and who knows how many others! He almost killed you, damn it!"

-"Shinn, I said stop it!" Heine said again, more firmly. Shinn stepped back, glowering from Athrun to Heine, then turned around and left the hangar. As he stood in the doorway, he turned back to the older two men.

- "He was the enemy, and I took him down." Shinn said, glowering at Athrun as he spoke. "I'm not going to apologize for that. And the truth is, I couldn't have done it without _your_ help either, Athrun." Then he left the hangar.

Shinn's comment left Athrun speechless for a moment, as he recalled what he had told Shinn before, and realized that Shinn was right. If he was honest with himself, Shinn had proven to be even more skilled of a pilot than he'd expected - despite his age and his impulsive nature, he was easily a match in raw talent for Kira or Athrun himself. And on a certain level, Athrun should have expected that something like this would happen. Heine, meanwhile, turned to face Athrun, a reproachful look on his face.

"No offense, but you can't blame the kid. What'd you have to slug him like that for?" He asked. "Listen, I know he's got an attitude problem, but honestly Shinn's right. Personal feelings aside, you're the one who's out of line here; We had specific orders from the homeland to take down that ship, and Shinn carried them out brilliantly."

Athrun opened his mouth to reply, but Heine continued, guessing what Athrun was about to say. "I know you feel they aren't our enemy, but their actions to date prove otherwise. I would think that after what they did to you, you'd get that."

At a loss for words, Athrun turned and left the hangar, heading for his quarters. Heine looked after them, a concerned expression on his face, as Lunamaria walked up. She had an odd expression on her face, part concerned, part exasperated.

"Oh brother." She said, sounding exasperated. "Now what's going to happen?"

"Hopefully, they'll both calm down and work it out." Heine said. However, something like this would take time, and he was worried that something worse might happen before they did...

In his quarters, Athrun thought about what had happened, how he had had a hand, however indirectly, in the events that had just transpired. He thought back to the events of the last few months, and finally to the last time he and Kira had met face to face, after the disastrous first battle in the Dardanelles. As much as he had tried to believe otherwise, Heine was right.

"Still...that doesn't mean that you had to kill him." Athrun said bitterly, and he wept for the death of his best friend.

Later, he realized that as angry and as devastated as he was at Kira's death, Shinn too had lost a best friend, and must have felt much the same. And he mused that they certainly seemed to be stuck in exactly the same kind of situation that Cagalli had described, so long ago.

He would talk to Shinn later on, he decided.

Its mission accomplished, the _Minerva_ set a new course south, heading directly back to Gibraltar. Heine headed up to the bridge, where Yzak was expecting him.

"Heine." He said, "Good. I was just about to call you."

- "Something the matter, sir?" Heine asked.

- "Not really. We've received orders from HQ to return to Gibraltar. The _Minerva_ will resupply there and stand by. You, on the other hand, will not. The Supreme Council's relayed orders for you to hop a shuttle and rendez-vous with the _Vermeer_ in lunar orbit; you're to be assigned to the lunar fleet, based off the _Gondwana_." Yzak replied.

Heine, like Yzak a member of FAITH, understood that these orders were from the highest possible authority. He nodded, then shrugged.  
>- "Pity; I was looking forward to sticking around for the next act. But I guess it can't be helped." He said philosophically. Still, he was worried about Shinn and Athrun.<p>

- "No, that it can't." Yzak said. Then he noted something in the other man's expression. "Something on your mind?"

Heine then explained what had happened in the hangar, and Yzak rolled his eyes as he spoke, an exasperated expression. "I'll talk to them later. Damn, that guy's a royal pain in my ass."

- "Which one?" Heine asked half-jokingly, before leaving the bridge. Yzak just shook his head.

The _Minerva_ had been under way for several hours, and the sun was setting. Shinn stood on the observation deck, looking out at the sunset. He fished a small, pink mobile phone out of his pocket, and he flipped through the photographs that were stored in the device's memories. Most were of him, alone or with Mayu, his sister. Some were of his parents, and there were a fair few of Mayu herself.  
>Lost in his memories, he did not hear the door slide open, nor the footsteps as someone came up behind him. Suddenly, the new arrival spoke, jolting him out of his rêverie.<p>

"A pink phone? That's kind of unusual."

Shinn whipped around, glaring angrily at Athrun where he stood, a few paces away. Athrun, expecting to find Shinn out here, had wanted to talk to him about what had happened, and had been surprised to see such an odd object. He'd never seen Shinn with it before.

Had he asked Lunamaria, or even Yolant, they could have warned him that the phone was a touchy subject, and to be careful when bringing it up. However, neither was anywhere nearby, and so he asked Shinn about it directly.

Perhaps _too_ directly.

The expression on Shinn's startled the older man, who had never seen him look this angry. And what startled him perhaps more was that Shinn's red eyes were rimmed with tears.

- "It was my sister's." the younger man growled. Athrun suddenly remembered that Shinn's family had been killed in Orb.

- "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to..." Athrun started to say, but he stopped, unsure of exactly what to say to Shinn. A tense silence followed that lasted several moments, before Shinn snapped the phone shut and pocketed it. His expression softened, but a simmering anger remained in his eyes.

"It's fine." Shinn said a little shortly, wiping his eyes on his sleeve. "You didn't know."

His expression became distant as he thought back to the events of that terrible day.

He wasn't sure why he was telling Athrun this. But somehow, telling _someone _about it seemed to relieve the weight of the grief and anger he had carried so long. And so, he continued to speak.  
>"She was three years younger than me. We used to play together all the time. She never went anywhere without it, and she was constantly taking pictures with it. When we...were evacuating, it fell from her purse and it went down the hill. It seems stupid, but I went down to try and retrieve it, because it was so important to her. It saved my life. When the attack hit, I was blown off my feet and down the hill. I landed on the ground at the docks. But when I looked for her..."<p>

Shinn's voice cracked, and he fought back tears, as he remembered the gruesome sight of his family's mangled corpses. Tears were flowing down his pale face again.

Athrun looked at him in silence, surprised that, given the recent hostility between them, Shinn would tell him this. He could guess what was next; Shinn had lost his entire family that day, when the Alliance attacked Orb. All the same, Shinn's next words struck him like a hammer blow.

"It was the Freedom that did it." He said flatly.

- "What?" Athrun replied, shocked. Off-balance, for a moment he didn't know what to say. Then after a moment slowly, hesitantly, he spoke. "I...I'm sorry, I had no idea...I think, if Kira were here, he would be as well."

- "What makes you say that?" Shinn asked, his voice hollow.

- "Because he was my best friend. I've known him for years - we went to the same prep school in Copernicus on the moon when we were kids. He was from Orb, and I was from the PLANTs, but all the same..." Athrun's voice trailed off, as he thought of when they met again, on the battlefield.

Shinn stood silently, lost in his thoughts. The burning desire for revenge that had sustained him for so long, now that the Freedom and its pilot were destroyed, was gone. He had told the truth before - he had felt proud that he had defeated him, and he had thought that, with Rey avenged, he would feel...different. A sense of closure, perhaps. But there was nothing - he just felt empty.

And now, listening to Athrun, he could not help but draw parallels between what he heard and his own friendship with Rey.  
>- "I think...I think I understand what you meant." He said, with a sad sort of smile on his face.<p>

- "What do you mean?" Athrun said, puzzled.

- "In Bandirma. When we were having dinner with the Chairman." Shinn said. "You said "If a person kills for vengeance, and then is killed for being a killer, then how will we ever find peace?" - remember?"

- "Yeah, I do." Athrun said. He remembered very well. He remembered just as well the first time those words were spoken to him. Eerily, it had been shortly after he himself thought he had killed Kira, in the Marshall Islands.

- "He killed my family. And he killed my best friend." Shinn said. "Now I've killed him - but he was your best friend. So where does that leave us?"

- "I still don't know." Athrun said. "But I wish I did."

There was silence for a moment. Then Shinn spoke again. "I'm sorry."

- "So am I. He was a great guy. I wish you could've met him - I think, notwithstanding what happened, you would have liked him."

Athrun turned to head back inside. Shinn still leaned at the railing. The sun had set, and stars were beginning to appear in the darkening sky. As Athrun reached the doorway, Shinn addressed him one more time.

- "Was it him? The one who said that to you?" Shinn asked.

"No, it was his sister." Athrun answered. "Her, you _have_ met though."

- "I have?" Shinn asked, confused. Athrun nodded, before replying, and he couldn't help but smile as he wondered how Shinn would react.

- "It was Cagalli who said that." He said. Then he headed back inside.

Shinn stayed out a while longer, and as he looked up at the sky, he thought of Cagalli Yula Athha, the fiery young Chief Representative of Orb. He thought back to the second battle with the Orb fleet, and he realized that, whatever grievances he might have had, he was perhaps mistaken in his judgement of her...

He cast the thought out of his mind, and as he looked up at the stars, he began to wonder about Stella. He had hoped that they would stop at Wilhelmshaven - he wanted to see her again. But they had sailed straight southwards, leaving Germany far behind on their way back directly to Gibraltar. He hoped his faith in the woman, Dr. Kinney, had not been misplaced. And he wondered whether he would ever see her again, hoping that he would.

He took a deep breath, and then he turned to head back inside.

**Haakonsvern Naval Base**  
><strong>Kingdom of Scandinavia<strong>

Three vessels of the Scandinavian Navy made their way into port in the nation's main naval base at Haakonsvern. A much smaller installation than the major military installations of the Alliance or the PLANTs, such as Gibraltar, it was nonetheless home to a sizable number of surface warships and three of the nation's six submarines.

Once the vessels were docked, their commanding officers disembarked, along with a number of others, who did not wear the uniform of the Scandinavian armed forces. Of these, a number were brought down on stretchers to waiting ambulances, which immediately made for the base's medical facilities.

Leading those who were able to walk on their own was Murrue Ramius, former Commanding Officer of the late LCAM-01XA _Archangel_. With her was Andrew Waltfeld, as well as Juri Wu Nien, Canard Pars, and a number of the ship's bridge crew.

The mood was somber as the few of them were led to the base commander's facilities. Many of their shipmates had not survived their ship's destruction. Kojiro Murdoch, the ship's grizzled, experienced mechanic, was among them. And even of the wounded, there were a number in critical condition, and who might not make it.

All the same, she thanked the base commander for his assistance.

Though crippled, the _Archangel_ had been slow to flood, and she had sunk in shallow water.  
>Once the ship hit the bottom, she had broadcast a Mayday, and soon after the <em>Minerva<em> left they had been located by a Scandinavian submarine, which had communicated their position to three surface ships.

Regretfully, she had said good-bye to the _Archangel_, a ship that had seen them through so much, and they had abandoned the ship.

And now, the few of them that remained had to decide what to do.

It was Canard who spoke first. "Kira said that we should go back to Orb, and I think that's still what we should do - Cagalli may need our help."

- "Maybe." Murrue said. "But in this situation, how much can we do? The Archangel destroyed, the Freedom and the Buster as well. And the Strike Rouge was so badly damaged by that positron cannon, we had to abandon it too."

Juri nodded, shuddering. It had been an extremely close call, and she was lucky that, unlike Commander LaFlaga three years earlier, the attack had not been a direct, head-on strike; all the same, the attack had completely blown away the Strike's legs.

- "All the same, I happen to agree with the kid." Andrew suddenly spoke up. "We can't exactly sit here with our thumbs up our asses - I don't know about you guys, but I don't trust Durendal much, not after this."

Canard nodded, before he began to speak again. Of the ones present, he was the one who was least acquainted with Kira, and he had known only a handful of the Archangel's crew; all the same, he felt grief and anger in equal parts at what had happened, and there was one thing he was sure of: Durendal was the real enemy.

- "No, I have to agree. I'm going to return to space; there's a couple of things I can do up there that might help. But the rest of you should stick to our original plan and return to Orb; I was planning on heading up once we got there anyway."

"All right. We'll travel by civilian shuttle. I guess though that those that are too injured will stay here." Murrue said. She looked from Canard to Andrew.

The latter spoke next, voicing his own concerns, which Murrue shared.

- "Things are moving pretty fast. With Durendal's announcement, plus what happened in Germany, the Alliance has never been in a worse situation, politically or militarily." Andrew said. "I was just chatting with the Commander, and there've been massive popular uprisings all over Western Eurasia; the Blue Cosmos and Logos-sympathizers in the governments and military are being completely overwhelmed - a lot of really high-ranking guys are being rounded up and arrested. Plus, the Atlantic Federation's been pulling their forces back to Heaven's Base and Panama."

- "And there's word that the Atlantic Federation forces at Plymouth in the British Isles are in open rebellion, as well." Canard supplied. "It's so close to Eurasia, there's traditionally been a lot of cooperation and communication between them and the Eurasian bases at Wilhelmshaven and Brest. So with the top brass cutting and running, the guys in the lower ranks are turning on them."

- "Well, that's kinda unexpected." Andrew said, looking surprised. "Plymouth's a pretty big base - smaller than say, Panama or Heaven's Base, but all the same I'm pretty sure they had at least a couple of carriers home-ported there."

"Things are going to keep getting worse." Murrue said, her decision made. "And it's time for us to go home."

Everyone in the room nodded.

**ZAFT Forces Gibraltar Base**  
><strong>LHM-BB01 <em>Minerva<em>.**

A couple of days had passed since the _Minerva_, at long last, returned to Gibraltar. It was expected that they would be there for quite some time, and so under the supervision of Matt Aves, a complete overhaul of the ship was begun, including much-needed, comprehensive repairs as well as resupply.

Yzak was on the bridge, having briefed a complement of new pilots who had been assigned to the ship; after having dinner with the rest of the crew, Heine had left the previous evening.

Yzak had been interested to note a subtle change in the interactions between Athrun and Shinn, and it seemed that whatever unresolved issues they may have had, the two had finally buried the hatchet.

"Maybe now the little bastard won't be as much of a pain in my ass, since Athrun seems to finally be able to handle him." Yzak mumbled, somewhat relieved. He had meant to talk to the two of them, but apparently Athrun had beaten him to it, and whatever the hell he'd said had worked. Good, he thought - the kid was a brilliant pilot, but a lousy soldier; but now it was Athrun's problem.

The crew had been granted shore leave, and Lunamaria, Vino, and Yolant had taken immediate advantage of the opportunity. Shinn had gone into town with them once the previous day, but today he'd opted to stay on base. To his surprise, he found that Athrun had stayed as well, when he entered the ship's shooting range and found the older man was there.  
>Shinn watched him for a moment, then stepped into a separate booth with his own service weapon, set up a target, and started.<p>

"You're a pretty good shot." Athrun commented a half-hour later, when Shinn finally removed his ear protectors and started to pack away his weapon. The empty shell casings he threw into a bin. Athrun had finished some time earlier, and had been watching the young man at work.

- "Not as good as you, though." Shinn said lightly. Athrun smiled.

- "Is that such a bad thing?" He asked. The question was rhetorical, and Shinn did not answer. Athrun, however, continued to speak. "You're a quick learner - you'll get better."  
>The two men walked out together, both storing their weapons in their respective racks in the ship's armory, which was adjacent to the range. Then they left and walked out to the deck - a habit they seemed to be sharing more and more.<p>

"You think we'll be here long?" Shinn asked Athrun.

- "A couple of weeks at least, if not more." Athrun replied. "The overhaul to the ship will take at least that long, possibly as much as a month."

- "The situation in Eurasia's getting worse." Shinn said darkly, thinking of what they had heard as to the latest developments in Western Eurasia, with the escalation of conflicts in a number of regions.

- "I know." Athrun replied. "But President Baum's committed to ending this as peacefully as possible; on the other hand, Blue Cosmos is a terrorist organization - you can understand their wanting to arrest and prosecute anyone affiliated with them, especially after what happened."

- "Yeah." Shinn said pensively. "I still can't believe it..." His voice trailed off as he thought of the devastation he'd witnessed in Hamburg; before that there had been Berlin, and before that two other cities. Again he thought of Stella, who'd been forced into it, he knew.

"You're thinking about her again." Athrun said knowingly, glancing at the seashell on its cord around Shinn's neck.  
>Shinn nodded, but did not immediately reply.<p>

- "I wonder if she's okay." He said.

- "I think so." Athrun said. "The doctor you spoke to - was it the same as before, when you took her off the _Minerva_?"

- "Yeah. That guy Lukas wasn't there, though." Shinn replied. Casting around for a change of subject, he then asked. "So, what do you think Orb will do?"

- "Well, they are technically a member of the Eurasian Federation, since signing that treaty." Athrun replied. "However, if I know Cagalli, she'll probably keep the Orb forces out of this one."

- "Good." Shinn thought, thinking of Todaka, and how close he had come to killing him - he owed a lot to that man, he thought, and wondered if they would ever meet again.

Athrun smiled again. "You know, you've changed." He said, looking out to sea.

- "How so?" Shinn asked, looking somewhat puzzled.

- "It's not so long ago, you'd have flown off the handle at any mention of Cagalli or Orb. And now, I tell you Orb probably won't be getting involved in this mess, and you're relieved." Athrun said.

- "S...So what?" Shinn stammered, looking embarrassed.

- "Nothing. I'm just saying, you've matured quite a bit since this whole thing started." He paused for a moment. Then he chuckled.

"What's so funny?" Shinn asked.

"Just thinking how much the two of you have in common." Athrun said. "She's just like you - impulsive, hot-headed. Stubborn as an ass, too, but smart, and really dedicated to doing the right thing."

Shinn did not reply; as much as he disliked Cagalli, he recognized the compliment. And he too smiled.

**Iceland, Atlantic Federation**  
><strong>OMNI Enforcer Supreme General Headquarters<strong>  
><strong>"Heaven's Base"<strong>

Heaven's Base, located in Iceland, had become, since the destruction of JOSH-A in C.E. 71, the largest military base in the Earth Alliance other than Panama, and had replaced JOSH-A as the General Headquarters of the Alliance military - and most especially, of the Atlantic Federation, which controlled Iceland.

So when a number of private shuttles arrived in stages, all of them late at night and flying at low altitude, the base commander was ready; the men who disembarked were among the most prominent figures in the Alliance's massive military industry, as well as a number of civilian-sector manufacturers and influential politicians. These men were _Logos_.

Many of them were worried; several of their number had already been killed in the uprisings that had swept up throughout the Alliance, and especially in Western Eurasia. For that reason, those that remained had decided to congregate in the safest place any of them could think of, the most heavily defended base on Earth.

The most powerful of them was the last to arrive: Teivel Jibril, the fanatical leader of Blue Cosmos, and in a sense the leader of Logos itself.

Jibril was met by a taller man in a black Alliance officer's uniform, an ugly scar bisecting his long, angular face, copper-skinned with black hair tied in a high ponytail.

"Well, Commander O'Donnell." Jibril said coldly. "I see you survived Hamburg."

O'Donnell shrugged. It had been simple enough, in the chaos, to slip away. He had told them that he was an Alliance pilot shot down during the Destroy's attack, which was true as far as it went; he didn't elaborate who had shot him down or what machine he'd been flying in. He'd simply used the name of the 501st, and they had stopped the questions.

Of course, the 501st was never his unit, but by the time they'd found that out, he was long gone, on his way out and to Heaven's Base, where he still was. In his view though, it was only a matter of time before either the Eurasian Federation or ZAFT tried to attack this place.

Jibril likewise suspected that the best case scenario was that they could expect an attack on the base within a matter of a couple of months at the most. But at the moment, they were safe, as that fool Baum was too busy dealing with the chaos within his own borders to worry about them just yet. And by the time either he or that arrogant bastard Durendal were ready, it would be too late.  
>So it was that as he strode into the conference room occupied by his cohorts of Logos, his expression was one of smug confidence.<p>

"I don't see what cause you have to be so confident, Jibril." Bruno Azrael said dryly once the group was seated. "Your grand demonstration in Germany seems to have made things worse rather than better."

- "A temporary setback at best." Jibril said dismissively. "That idealistic buffoon Baum is too overextended trying to keep his own military in check to worry about us."

- "Maybe so," said another, "but you're forgetting about ZAFT. Durendal certainly won't wait idly by while we gather our strength and regroup."

- "Oh, but he will. They themselves don't have the forces to oppose us. And by the time they do, it will be too late anyway." Jibril said confidently. "This place makes JOSH-A look like an open-air campground; its defenses are near-foolproof, and soon enough they will be completely so."

- "That's all very well, but what if they drop reinforcements from orbit?" A third spoke. "ZAFT has a substantial fleet in lunar orbit, so we can't count on our own space forces, and it would be a simple matter for them to move forces to Earth orbit and drop reinforcements, like when they took Kaohsiung and when they destroyed Panama."

- "That has already been taken into account." Jibril replied haughtily. "Don't worry. Whenever that fool Durendal and those idiots in Eurasia dancing to his tune turn to us, we will show the world how foolish it was for them to oppose Logos...let them try to strike at us here; we will destroy them all."


	24. Phase 24: A New Sword

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **Okay, so here's the next chapter, which is basically 90% new content. It basically parallels episode 36 or so in that it introduces Shinn's new machine, the Destiny Gundam - which is going to be similar, though in some ways substantially different from its canon equivalent. A new machine is also introduced for Athrun, and no it's not the Legend Gundam.

In a related note, I have been putting together a wiki compiling information on the mobile suits, ships, and characters in this story. You guys can take a look at that, at gsdestinyaltered-wikia-com (substitute periods for the dashes)._  
><em>

And now, enjoy. As always, please review.

* * *

><p><strong>PHASE 24: A New Sword<strong>

**Lunar orbit**

A sizable fleet of vessels - many of them ZAFT Nazca-class, including the _Voltaire_ and _Rousseau_ - was gathered. On the bridge of the Voltaire, Shiho looked down at the gray surface of the moon.

Though ZAFT had frequently maintained vessels in lunar orbit, the surface of the moon had always been held primarily by the Earth Alliance, originally from two massive bases established in the 123-kilometer-wide Endymion and the even larger Ptolemaus craters. The Bloody Valentine War, three years prior, had seen both bases obliterated, but since the war's end, the Alliance military had re-established their military foothold on the moon with three bases. By far the largest of these was Arzachel, a massive installation that spanned both the crater of the same name and its larger neighbor, Alphonsus. Then there were two smaller support bases: one in the 96-kilometer Daedalus crater on the far side of the moon, and the slightly larger Theophilus. The first two were held by the Atlantic Federation, while the third was nominally a Eurasian Federation base.

At war with their western neighbor, the Eurasian Federation had also been dealing with resistance from Logos-allied commanders within their own forces. Many of them had been arrested or killed; others had willingly surrendered. The only one still resisting was the commander of Theophilus. The Eurasian Federation space force was split between Theophilus and the asteroid base Artemis. Which was why Prime Minister Marshall had requested the assistance of the PLANTs, and why eight Nazca-class destroyers and four Laurasia-class frigates had joined the ten Eurasian Federation ships launched from Artemis in an attack on Theophilus, the intent being to recapture the base. Should they do succeed, they would then be perfectly positioned to potentially launch a strike against either of the Atlantic Federation's own lunar bases. Three Agamemnon-class carriers made up the fleet, escorted by six Nelson-class battleships. The flagship of the Alliance fleet was a long, sleek, jet-black assault carrier.

This was the SCV/XA-SO2 _Alakhshya_: the second ship of the top-secret Niranjan-class of heavy stealth assault carriers.

Whereas its sister-ship, the _Nana Buluku_, had been built at Daedalus lunar base, construction of the _Alakhshya_ had begun at the Space Fortress Artemis at Lagrange Four; the base's commander at the time, Gerard Garcia, had been affiliated with Logos, and had provided the resources of his fortress so that both ships could be built simultaneously. However, Garcia had been arrested and court-martialed during the first, partially-successful purge of the Eurasian Federation's military and government that saw so much of Blue Cosmos and Logos's influence eliminated in Eurasia. On the orders of Brennan Marshall, construction of the _Alakhshya_ had continued, his goal being to use the ship as the space-bound flagship of the 501st Corps.

And now was the ship's first sortie, commanded by the finest officer the Eurasian military had: Captain Natarle Badgiruel.

'It's so much like the _Dominion_...and yet so different.' Natarle thought. Indeed its armament, save the lack of the heavy 110cm linear cannons, was nearly identical to her old Archangel-class ship, the _Dominion_. Her first command. Even the ship's color scheme was similar. But in internal layout, especially of its bridge, it was completely different; more akin, she thought, to the Agamemnon-class like the _Spencer_.

She glanced up at the monitor. It felt so strange, to be flying in such close formation with ZAFT vessels. She shook her head. It was time.

"All hands, level one battle stations. All mobile suits, launch!" She ordered. "Begin the attack!"

The same order was relayed to the two Agamemnon-class carriers and six Nelson-class ships that formed her strike group, and from each of the eight vessels mobile suits began launching, one or two at a time, even as her CIC reported incoming ships and mobile suits - but no mobile armors - deploying from Theophilus.

At the same time, the same order rippled throughout the ZAFT forces, as GOUF Igniteds, ZAKU Warriors, and even GuAIZ and GuAIZ-Rs began to deploy from the ten ships - four Nazca-class, six Laurasia-class.

"Gottfrieds one through four, target the enemy ships ahead to starboard." Natarle ordered. "Load all tubes with Sledgehammers, ready to fire on my command."

She waited a couple of seconds, then gave the order, and the second ship of the Niranjan-class entered the fray.  
>The four powerful dual beam cannons tore into the incoming enemy ships, and moments later a barrage of heavy "Sledgehammer" anti-ship missiles were launched from the powerful vessel's thirty-eight VLS tubes.<p>

Then, the _Alakhshya'_s four linear catapults opened, and eleven mobile suits began to launch: The new CAT1-XG Hyperion-G, a mobile suit newly developed by the Eurasian Federation based on an early Bloody Valentine War prototype, the CAT1-X Hyperion Gundams. These machines were to be Eurasia's next generation of mobile suits.

The other ships, meanwhile, deployed GAT-04 Windams, many armed with the heavy Doppelhorn Striker, some with Aile, Sword, or Launcher Strikers. The Windams were evenly matched by the mix of Dagger-Ls and Windams that launched to oppose them. However, the Hyperion-Gs were a whole different story, and the eleven new models tore into the attacking formations.

The battle raged around them, and Dearka led the ZAFT forces from the front line. Their enemies primarily consisted of older Dagger-types and the occasional Windam; his Gunner ZAKU Warrior was more than a match for them, as was the bright-orange GOUF Ignited, piloted by Heine Westenfluss off the _Vermeer_. Other than Shiho's GuAIZ and about half the mobile suits on the other three ships, the attacking forces consisted almost wholly of ZAKU Warriors and GOUF Igniteds. The Eurasian allied forces were almost all Windams, supported by new models launched from the enemy flagship; their dark colors made them almost impossible to detect visually, and their defenses and ranged assault capabilities easily overwhelmed the Daggers.

Though both sides took heavy losses, inexorably the defense forces were beaten back, pummeled from above by mobile suits as well as the attacking ships.

The remaining enemy vessels gathered together for a final attack, targeting the ZAFT vessels on the front line. They had already lost one Nazca, two Laurasia and half of the Nelson-class ships, which were damaged or destroyed, when suddenly, the lead ship of the enemy fleet was obliterated by a massive strike from the black Alliance flagship, which fired two positron cannons mounted to the sides of its bow.  
>Soon after that, the base fell. The Eurasian ships landed, and its commander was arrested as the Eurasian forces seized control of the base.<p>

Afterwards, the ZAFT forces withdrew from Theophilus's space. With the surviving ZAFT vessels on their way back, Shiho, Dearka and Heine were discussing the battle in the _Rousseau_'s mess.

"So, now what?" Shiho asked. "I mean, you know that with Theophilus recaptured, the Eurasian Federation's in perfect position for a strike on Arzachel."

"However, they don't have enough manpower to attack the base directly - the Atlantic Federation space fleet is far larger than Eurasia's. Probably, they would need assistance from us if they were to capture it; but then that creates a whole host of other problems." Heine replied pensively.

"They might not need to, with that black carrier of theirs." Dearka countered. "That thing is one nasty piece of work; I'd hate to have to go up against it in a Nazca."

"No, a Nazca wouldn't stand a chance against that thing." Heine concurred. "But the _Minerva_ might."

"You're right about that - especially with Yzak in command." Shiho concurred. "If he can take down the _Archangel_, he can probably take that thing down. It'd be harder, though."

Heine nodded. Then Dearka spoke again. "You know, since we're talking about it, did that ship remind either of you of anything?" Dearka asked.

"It's the same class as the ship that attacked us at Junius Seven, Dearka." Shiho said with a raised eyebrow. Dearka shook its head.

"I know, but that's not what I meant." He said. "What I meant was that it reminded me of the Archangel-class. think about it: A large, heavy assault carrier, armed with two positron cannons. Especially that black one that was at Jachin. D'you guys remember?"

"You know, that is a good point." Heine replied. "There are some similarities in size, armament and role, apparently.  
>Shiho nodded as well; they all had fought at the Second Battle of Jachin Due, and remembered that vessel, which had ultimately been destroyed by its sister ship in that battle.<p>

"Speaking of which, if the one from Junius Seven is anywhere, it'll be stationed at Arzachel, probably." She said, before adding. "You know, I have to wonder: Why is the _Minerva_ still on Earth? I mean, it is a space ship, after all."

To that, neither man had an answer...

Heine left the ship soon after that, returning to the _Vermeer_, which soon returned to its normal post, with the forces escorting the giant supercarrier _Gondwana_.

The FAITH operative was informed upon his arrival that the Chairman had required his presence, and so he took a shuttle to the _Gondwana_, where he met Gilbert Durendal in a gigantic chamber near the top of the ship, above its bridge.  
>Two men were there: Chairman Durendal and a younger ZAFT officer, whom Heine recognized.<p>

"So, how did the battle go, Heine?" the former asked.

"As well as can be expected, all things considered." Heine replied. "Though there was one troubling development: The Eurasian Federation fielded both a new flagship and new model mobile suits."

He handed to Durendal a printed report, including photographs of the new machines and ship.

"That's the same class of ship that attacked our forces at Junius Seven during Break The World, isn't it?" The other man asked. Heine nodded.

"It is. The ship's battle strength would seem to be about equivalent to the _Archangel_." Heine replied. "At least equal to, if not slightly greater than the _Minerva_. And its new mobile suits I think would prove able to engage our DOM Troopers on nearly equal terms, though they appear to be inferior in mobility."

"Well, what do you think?" Durendal addressed the younger officer, and Heine looked at him as well. "You've faced the Archangel in battle yourself. What would you say to this?"

"I made the mistake of underestimating the enemy once, and it cost me dearly." The other man said, and Heine saw a hard, bitter look in his blue eyes. "It's not a mistake I would care to make in this case; I think we should assume that these new models will be able to match us in combat, should things come to that."

Durendal nodded, but his reply was cautiously optimistic. "Then let us hope that it never will come to that." He said. He did not speak the thought that occurred to all three of them: That they would be ready if it did.

At Theophilus, meanwhile, Natarle read the after-action report for the battle. They had lost two of their eleven new models in the battle, which was a devastating loss. And three more were damaged beyond repair and would be cannibalized for parts to repair those that could be made operational.  
>Then, she received a transmission from Artemis with her new orders.<p>

"Stand by at Theophilus. Two new models being assigned to _Alakshya_ for combat testing? Pilots to be selected from available personnel at my discretion?" She asked. "What kind of..."  
>The question died unasked as she saw brief preliminary data on the two new machines. But she soon knew exactly the pilots she needed.<p>

"Contact Artemis. Send the AA report on the battle to them, and request supplies be sent to Theophilus including additional mobile suits. And tell them that I want the following two pilots transferred to the _Alakhshya_." She ordered her communications officer, and gave him the two names she wanted. The message was encrypted and transmitted almost immediately.

A couple of hours later, she had her response. "Cornelius-class tenders being sent to Theophilus. Your request (para #2) approved. Further instructions will be communicated shortly."  
>Natarle Badgiruel leaned back in her chair and allowed herself a small smile.<p>

**ZAFT Forces Gibraltar Base**

Lunamaria Hawke, Vino Dupré, and Yolant Kent stood in front of a hangar, located not far from where the _Minerva_ was docked, and watched as a group of GOUF Ignited mobile suits landed, one after the other. Most were in the dull-brown colors common to the mass-produced version of the machine, but one bore striking, two-tone blue colors - the second of two original prototypes of the machine, piloted by Commander Yzak Joule.

Several weeks had passed in relative quiet while the _Minerva_ underwent the most comprehensive overhaul since its premature launch, months earlier, before the current war broke out. Much of that time had been spent training with the new pilots who had joined the crew - a mix of GOUF Igniteds, as well as underwater-assault ASSH mobile suits.

Lunamaria herself had also been training, though the ground-type ZAKU was limited in capability compared to the GOUF. However, the next exercise was one they anticipated quite a bit, as Shinn's dark-blue Storm Impulse came up once the GOUFs had returned to the hangar.

She wondered what was next, when another mobile suit appeared, taking up a position directly opposite Shinn's on the vast open area that served as training ground for pilots on the base, and Lunamaria gasped.

It was another Storm Impulse, this one colored a deep, vivid blood-red. Like Shinn's, it held a long training weapon, intended to simulate a beam saber, and its beam rifle had been replaced by a dummy training weapon. Instead of fighting against agressor mobile suits, the two machines would be dueling each other.

"Another Impulse? Who's the pilot?" She asked.

"Athrun is." Vino supplied. "It was the Captain's idea."

"It kinda makes sense. I mean, we had a spare Core Splendor, plus spare parts for the Impulse; so why not use those to deploy a second Impulse?" Yolant added. "To be honest, I'm wondering why they didn't think to do this ages ago."

They watched as the two machines took flight and engaged, at first at long range, but very quickly closing in to face each other in mêlée, sabers clashing furiously. For a moment, it looked as if Shinn had gained the upper hand, when he delivered a vicious kick that threw his opponent off-balance - a move he had used before, and which had always served him well.

However, Athrun's recovery was nearly instantaneous, and when Shinn's follow-up strike with the saber came, the red Impulse parried the attack, then brought to bear its rifle at point-blank range, a shot that in real combat would have destroyed the cockpit.

The duel had lasted roughly ten minutes. When both mobile suits had landed, Athrun opened up a communications link with Shinn.

"Nice work, Shinn." He said. "You did pretty well."

- "What are you talking about?" Shinn said, but there was no hostility in his tone beyond just a hint of resentment. "You beat me."

- "I have the advantage of being more experienced and knowing precisely how you fight." Athrun said. "And you know as well as I do how much of an edge that can be in combat."  
>Shinn knew what he meant, having used the same advantage in combat once before.<br>Athrun added "That said, I still think you did well."

- "Thanks." Shinn answered. "Want to go again?"

- "Sure thing." Athrun replied, smiling.

The two mobile suits took off once again, and as before the duel very rapidly moved into close range. This time, Athrun pressed his opponent harder, denying Shinn the opportunity to use the same move again.

But Shinn was learning, and when Athrun came in with a horizontal strike from the saber aimed at the cockpit, he jettisoned the Leg Flyer and shot upwards over the attack, immediately countering with a vicious diagonal slash that connected with the second Impulse's upper torso and would have taken off its head had they been using real weapons.

"Excellent." Athrun muttered; reviewing the footage from Operation Angel Down, he had seen Shinn use the same move before, and had been expecting the counter to come from behind as it had that time - but it had not, and Shinn had counterattacked immediately, not giving Athrun enough time to defend against the attack. The swiftness of his follow-up showed just how much the young man had learned.

They were done for now, and Athrun landed his machine. Shinn redocked and landed as well.

Below, Lunamaria was clapping, impressed with the performance of the two pilots and somewhat jealous that her own ZAKU could not come anywhere close to that level of performance.

Athrun and Shinn steered their machines into the hangar and both pilots left the hangar together. The two had become close in recent weeks, and Athrun suspected that later in the day, when the two of them would face Yzak and the GOUF Ignited pilots in their next exercise, Shinn would improve still more.

They were surprised, however, when overhead they saw a shuttle flying at low altitude, coming in for a landing on the long runway on the other side of the base.

"I wonder what that's about." Athrun commented, recognizing the shuttle as a PLANT-made long-range type of the kind usually used to travel from the PLANTs to Earth, especially by Supreme Council representatives - Durendal himself had used the same one when they had last seen him on Earth.

Shinn merely shrugged. "I guess we'll know soon enough." He said.

"Man, you guys were awesome!" Vino said as he ran up to them.

- "You really were," Lunamaria agreed, "especially since you were both using the exact same mobile suit."

- "Yzak and I thought it would be a good way to train." Athrun said. "And thanks. You didn't do so badly yourself in yesterday's exercises." He added towards Luna.

- "Well, thanks! Still, the ZAKU's nowhere near the Impulse in performance. That was totally intense."

"The kid is getting better, isn't he?" Yzak said as he walked up as well. Athrun and Shinn both saluted, as did the others.

- "Yeah, he is. We'll see how he does in team formation training this afternoon." Athrun replied.

- "As long as he doesn't run off half-cocked and get in over his head." Yzak said. Shinn frowned, but had the sense not to reply - after all, if their previous engagements were any indication, he was right.

But he determined that he would show the Captain just how much better he'd gotten.

**Orb Union**

"It's good to see you again." Cagalli said sincerely. "I'm sorry I haven't been able to come by earlier, but I've been busy - this whole situation is just..."

- "I understand. It's been difficult for you." Murrue Ramius replied. She looked care-worn, Cagalli thought, and there was a weariness in her expression that was new. It was understandable though, given the devastating losses they had suffered not so long ago. They had been more than just soldiers under her command - many of them had been with the ship since Heliopolis, and not a few had been good friends, especially the late Kojiro Murdoch.  
>Cagalli too had liked the irascible CPO Murdoch, and she knew how much his death meant to Murrue, who had known him for years.<p>

On the television screen not far away, an address by Chairman Durendal was being broadcast, speaking from the PLANTs and once again discussing the subject of Logos, the enemy against whom he stated they should all be fighting.

"I have no intention of doing something so foolish as to deploy our military in pursuit of the people I have listed," he said, "though it is true that, through the efforts of our friends in the Eurasian Federation, people who believe as I do that these men are true enemies of mankind, many of them have already been apprehended. But that is not what I meant when I said we must defeat Logos. My wish is that this time we are able to put a final end to this system of perpetual war which they have created."

They both glanced up at the screen. Unusually, the young Lacus Clyne impostor who so frequently appeared with him in these types of addresses was absent.

"They say Coordinators should not exist, that we are an aberration, or monsters with whom you can never reach an understanding." Durendal continued. "Why is that? Or more importantly, who was it that started saying those things in the first place?"

At that point Durendal's image disappeared, replaced by grisly footage of some kind of lab where experiments had been conducted, many of the subjects visibly children, all of them dead. This footage had been taken at the Lodonia lab, which had since been burned to the ground by the Eurasian Federation military. Then, footage of the recent rampage of the Destroy across Eurasia. Both women looked at the footage, their disgust clearly apparent on their faces.

Durendal was speaking over the footage, saying "To me, the real monsters are the members of Logos, who endorse atrocities such as these. Everything they do and say is with one purpose: To increase the animosity and fervor that divides us and leads to wars such as the one we now find ourselves fighting. A world at peace is not profitable, nor can it be controlled or manipulated. And that is why they attack us, forcing us to fight back, and they will never cease in their attempts to do so. But we can live without fighting; we can find common ground, so that we can finally escape this world of constant conflict they have fashioned for us."

Exasperated, Cagalli turned off the television. In the ensuing silence, it was Andrew Waltfeld, standing nearby, who spoke next.

"I have to admit, theoretically I agree with Chairman Durendal. That's what makes this so difficult. But it's all well and good for him to talk about ending this, but how would we go about doing that?"

- "I don't know." Cagalli answered honestly. "But what will you all do now?"

- "Well, Canard's headed up to space; probably once he's done whatever he needs to he'll get back to the _Eternal_. I will probably head up there myself eventually." Waltfeld answered.

- "As for me...well, I don't know." Murrue said. "But it was Kira who said that we should return, and so I will stay here. Though I don't know how much help I can be, considering the circumstances."

Cagalli was grateful for their help. She knew that, whatever had happend and whatever mistakes had been made, they all truly believed as she did. And she was glad to have them at her side.

_'If only Kira were...'_ she thought. She shook her head, then after chatting with them a while longer, she left, heading back to her office.

**ZAFT Forces Gibraltar Base**

The Minerva's pilots were congregated in the base's mess hall having dinner, and generally talking, when Shinn looked around and started to speak, addressing Athrun primarily.

"I wonder...what they've got in store for all of us." He said pensively.

- "I'm not sure." Athrun replied. "But something tells me it will have something to do with the Chairman's address."

- "Huh? You mean attack Logos?" Lunamaria injected. "But even Chairman Durendal said that's going to be a pretty difficult job."

- "Doesn't matter." Yzak retorted. "Difficult or not, it's gotta be done. And you can bet we'll be first in line when the shit hits the fan...we just gotta find out where the fuckers're holed up first."

- "Fine by me." Shinn said, a dangerous edge in his voice. "Because if we ever want to end this war for sure, this is the way to do it."

At that moment, an MP stepped up and approached Yzak.

- "Excuse me, sir. I have orders from Command for Shinn Asuka and Athrun Zala to report to hangar six."

- "Right." Yzak said. Then he turned to Athrun and Shinn. "You two - you heard the man."

Shinn and Athrun nodded and stood.

They followed the MP to the hangar, at the entrance of which a woman stood. Slight, with short silver hair, piercing blue eyes, and wearing a long, dark blue overcoat. Athrun immediately recognized Ezalia Joule, mother to Yzak and current Chairwoman of the National Defense Committee.

"Chairwoman Joule." Athrun said, saluting. Shinn likewise saluted, but did not speak.

- "Athrun, Shinn." She replied. "I've been reading the reports - you two have been doing an excellent job."

- "Thank you, ma'am." Shinn replied.

- "I trust you kept abreast of current affairs - you saw Chairman Durendal's latest address?"

- "Yes, ma'am. It was...inspiring. I know he said this was going to be difficult, but I'm ready. If it means bringing this war to an end, I will fight any enemy, anywhere." Shinn replied, and the same hard edge crept into his voice again.

- "Good. And what about you, Athrun?" She turned. Shinn she had never actually met, though Chairman Durendal had and spoke very highly of him. But Athrun she knew personally.

- "When you draw your sword, the most important thing is that you have a just cause." He said. "Something one of my instructors at the Academy taught me."

- "Absolutely correct." Ezalia agreed. "Nobody can fight unless they have been given an enemy to defeat, and a good reason - as you say, a just cause. And now thanks to Chairman Durendal, we have a crystal clear image of that enemy and the reason they need to be defeated. So, can I...can we count on you, Athrun?"

- "Nobody wants this war to end more than I do, ma'am." Athrun replied.

- "Fair enough." Ezalia motioned for them to follow, and they entered the hangar, leaving the MP outside.

Once inside, Athrun saw two mobile suits of a type he'd never seen before. One of them was dark, drab green and black. The second was more viivdly colored, primarily two-tone blue and black.

"That is the YMF-3000 DOM Trooper," Ezalia said, noticing where Athrun was looking. "A high-speed mobile suit developed in the same lineage as the ZAKU and GOUF. It's a trial production model eventually intended to replace the BuCUE and GaZuOOT in our forces on Earth, though it can also operate in space."

"That one is in Yzak's colors." Athrun said, before the mobile suit standing some distance to the side of the blue DOM caught his eye. That end of the hangar was in total darkness, though the outline of the mobile suit could be discerned, and there was an odd familiarity about its lines.

A second mobile suit, less distinct, stood next to it.

- "Yes, it is to be assigned to the Minerva as his machine. But this is not the real reason I called you both here. Take a look at these - though I can see you've already noticed them."

Lights suddenly illuminated the end of the hangar, showing in full view two mobile suits. The first one Athrun noticed was a variant of the Saviour, with enlarged thrusters and wings on its back. Though visually not that dissimilar to its predecessor, its lines were sleeker, and to Athrun's eye even more evocative of the Justice than the Saviour itself had been - which explained the odd familiarity he had already noticed.

Then he saw the other, and his immediate reaction was blank shock - for a second he thought he was looking at the Freedom, but looking at it again, the resemblance to Kira's old mobile suit was superficial.

"The ZGMF-YX29R Knight Saviour Gundam, and the ZGMF-X42R Destiny Gundam. These two machines incorporate state-of-the-art technologies, and are currently the most advanced mobile suits produced to date. Chairman Durendal and I foresee that they will play a pivotal role in the upcoming battle."

- "Ma'am," Athrun asked. "Do you mean..."

- "They are yours." Ezalia replied, guessing - correctly - what Athrun's next question would be. "They are your new machines."

- "My...new machine." Shinn said softly, looking up at the sleek new mobile suits with an ecstatic expression, his eye especially drawn to the Destiny. "Thank you very much, ma'am!"

Ezalia nodded, then looked up at the Knight Saviour, then the Destiny. "The Knight Saviour of course is an improved version of the Saviour Gundam, with enhanced close- and long-range capability and improved mobility. It also served as a prototype to test several new technologies." She said.  
>"The Destiny incorporates those same experimental technologies. It was developed based on all of the accumulated combat data of the Impulse, and just as the Knight Saviour draws heavily in its design from the Justice, the Destiny was also closely based upon the Freedom."<p>

- "The Freedom?" Shinn asked, somewhat uneasy.

- "Yes. In its speed, mobility, defensive capability, and firepower it is a successor to it as well as to the Impulse, and was specifically tuned to fit your style of combat." Ezalia said. "So, what do you think?"

- "It's...amazing." Shinn said, looking up at the sleek new machine.

Yes, he thought. With this, he could fight. Even more than the Impulse, this new machine would become a sword with which he would fight, so that this war could finally be brought to an end, and the ones responsible brought to justice. So that nobody ever had to suffer again the way he had.

He would fight, so that at last Stella could be safe.


	25. Phase 25: Reunion

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This chapter is new material, taking place roughly three months after the Germany Incident. These events were originally not slated to take place until after the Battle of Heaven's Base, but I decided to move them up the timetable for personal reasons. Enjoy!

* * *

><p><strong>PHASE 25: Reunion<strong>

She stood on the shore, looking out to sea. It was not the sandy beach that had so captivated her. Nor the tall, craggy cliffs upon which she had stood, so long ago. It was cold and grey, like death. It was a different place from the one she had been previously, and yet the same; grey and cold and lifeless. Even the people here seemed that way. She hated this place, and all others like it.

The ships too, were cold and grey, and dead; nothing moved. None paid her any heed as she stood at the end of the cold, dark pier, and looked out past the ships, to the sea, glimmering blue under the sun in the distance.

To the south, she knew, he waited. Would he come to her? She did not know. But somehow, she knew he was there. She heard her name and turned. She saw the woman, and she smiled.

She had never known her mother - not really. But when she thought of the word, the face she saw in her mind was that of the woman now walking towards her.

- "It's getting dark." she said. "You should head back inside." She nodded. The woman held out her hand, and she took it, and followed.

**ZAFT Forces Gibraltar Base**  
><strong>LHM-BB01 <em>Minerva<em>**

More than two months after arriving at Gibraltar, the ship's overhaul had been completed, and the Minerva was now being resupplied, including the loading of new mobile suits - in addition to the two new Gundams and three DOM Troopers including Yzak's blue one, all of which were already on board, they were receiving seven GOUF Ignited. In order to maximize the number of mobile suits the ship could carry, the Impulse Gundams would, this time, be carried separated and launched using the central catapult. These preparations led Yzak to believe that a deployment was imminent, and he guessed that the enemy's location had been determined.

Much of the time had been spent training for all officers and crew, but especially Yzak, Shinn, and Athrun, who had spent hundreds of hours over the months since arriving in Gibraltar testing and familiarizing themselves with their new mobile suits. Yzak found that he liked the DOM Trooper. It was fast, nimble, and heavily armed and armored, equally capable in close- and long-range combat.

But the Gundams, he thought with a twinge of jealousy, were in an entirely different league - especially Shinn's Destiny Gundam. Yzak thought reflexively that only once had he seen such overwhelming superiority in a mobile suit: The Freedom. And even it paled in comparison to the Destiny and what it was been capable of. As for the Saviour, with the upgrades it had undergone from the original version it was an even deadlier machine than before, quite possibly more deadly than the mobile suit that had made Athrun famous, the Justice - which by his judgement it could outrun easily, and outgun more easily still.

Yzak was just thinking that they would need that power, especially if his suspicions proved correct, when he received a communication from Gibraltar stating that he, Arthur, and Athrun were ordered to report to the Base commander's office. Within minutes the three left the ship, heading for the base's command center, and upon their arrival, they found Chairwoman Joule - Yzak's mother - conversing with the commander.

The two turned when the three officers entered.

"Gentlemen," the base commander spoke, saluting Yzak and Athrun as he did so. The two FAITH officers returned the salute, and Arthur did likewise.

Then, Ezalia began to speak.

"We have received actionable intelligence pertaining to the current location of Teivel Jibril, Bruno Azrael, and numerous other members of Logos." She began to say. "The information came from a source inside the Alliance, and was independently verified through other channels including our own intelligence assets here on Earth."  
>She turned then, looking hard at her son, then his best friend and comrade. Neither man flinched, nor spoke.<p>

"They are at Heaven's Base, in Iceland." She continued, and this time Yzak's expression became concerned. Having replaced JOSH-A as the Atlantic Federation's primary military base, the massive installation at Heaven's Base was heavily fortified and defended - the largest such base anywhere in the world, matched in size only by Carpentaria.

"This has been relayed to Vice-President Marshall in Eurasia, as well as to the homeland." Ezalia continued. "We are expecting reinforcements to arrive from Carpentaria within a few days. When they arrive, the Minerva will lead the combined fleets northwards to participate in an attack on Heaven's Base."

- "Chairwoman Joule, if I may..." Athrun started to say, glancing at the map with a concerned expression on his face. "There is one thing that concerns me."

- "Of course, Athrun." She nodded, looking over at him. "What's on your mind?"

- "The GIUK Gap." He said, referring to that great choke point in the North Atlantic, a southeast-northwest line where the ocean narrows dramatically in the waters around Greenland, Iceland, and the United Kingdom - until recently, all territories firmly under the military control of the Atlantic Federation. The nations that now formed the Earth Alliance were known to deploy military forces in the Gap - both aerial and, more frequently, naval assets - going back to before the Reconstruction Wars. "The Alliance has traditionally had a very strong naval presence there - do we expect to run into enemy patrols?"

- "We do not." Ezalia replied. "Naval patrols in the GIUK Gap have been historically deployed from Iceland, but more often from Plymouth, Clyde, or the northern Eurasian bases such as Wilhelmshaven."

- "And of those bases, "only Heaven's Base in Iceland is still held by the enemy." the base commander supplied. "The big shots at Plymouth and the handful of smaller bases in the British Isles have all fled, and the ones remaining have sided with Eurasia against Logos."

- "I see." Athrun answered, sounding relieved.  
>Much of ZAFT's combat strength on earth centered on the Vosgolov-class submarine or the Lesseps-class land battleship - both of which were potential targets for the Alliance's San Francisco-class fast-attack subs.<br>Ezalia continued to speak.

- "As the Minerva and the fleet arrive in the North Atlantic, you will link up with Allied forces mustering at Plymouth. We are also expecting additional reinforcements from the USSA." Ezalia continued. "The orders from the homeland are simple: capture the members of Logos hiding there. Or else, destroy the base. Additional orbital forces are already standing by for deployment."

"I see." Yzak replied. "Do we know what defenses they will have available?" He asked. His meaning was plain: Do we expect a repeat of JOSH-A?

- "I would assume the heaviest. It is probable that they may have heavy mobile armor defense forces in addition to mobile suits, both aerial and naval. I'm counting on the _Minerva_ to break through."

"Yes, ma'am." Yzak replied. She dismissed them then, and all three men turned on their heels to leave.

"Oh, and Yzak?" She said, addressing him by name for the first time. He halted and turned back towards her, saw the concern in her eyes behind her impassive expression, a mother's concern for her son. "Good luck." She said, and he knew then that she was worried for him.

"Thank you." He replied, and he left.

Later that day, the base's monitoring station reported numerous approaching vessels, as the promised reinforcements from Carpentaria arrived. The following day, all preparations complete, the fleet began to set sail.

"The _Furnas_ and _Saint Augustine_ are under way," came the report from the Gibraltar Base port authority, "_Villaria_ and _Irazu_ will be setting sail in ten minutes. Fifteenth Mobile Fleet, your route is clear."

One by one, more than fifty Vosgolov-class submarines began to set sail, each carrying a full complement of six machines, typically a mix of GOUF Igniteds and ZAKU Warriors, as well as four underwater mobile suits - many of them the common mix of ZnO and GOOhNs, many others a full complement of the new ASSH. Following them was a force of Lesseps- and Petrie-class ships, including the Ruddle Team's _Desmond_ and _Bagley_ - their usual complement of BuCUEs and GaZuOOTs replaced with the same types of mobile suits carried by the submarines. GuAIZ-Rs and the occasional DINN were present as well, but few in number, as throughout the war they had been gradually phased out as ZAKUs and GOUFs were manufactured.

Finally, the base port authority contacted the _Minerva_.  
>"Flagship Sierra Antares One, you are clear to set sail." came the report.<p>

- "Roger that." Yzak acknowledged. Then he turned to his crew, looking around at them. "Ladies and gentlemen, it's time. Helm, back one third. The _Minerva_ is heading out."

- "Roger, back one third." Malik acknowledged.

The ship began slowly sliding back from the pier, as Yzak took his place on the bridge. He ordered the helm to turn, and then the ship began heading out to see.  
>"Set course, make your speed 40." Yzak ordered.<p>

- "Roger, speed 40." 40 knots was slow, for the ship - in calm waters at flank speed, she could easily do more than twice that - but it was a good cruising speed both for them and for their escort ships, not many of which could top sixty knots.

- "Abby, I want you to send a fleet-wide message." Yzak ordered, and moments later, the line was open. "This is Flagship Sierra Antares One - LHM-BB01 _Minerva_ to all vessels. This ship will be taking point - all forces, set course and follow our lead."

The ship momentarily accelerated to 45 knots, moving forward ahead of the other ships, and then slowed back down, in a position at the forefront of the massive formation.  
>And then, they set a course north, heading into the frigid waters of the North Atlantic, the traditional hunting ground of the naval forces of the Earth Alliance Navy...<p>

**Atlantic Federation**  
><strong>Naval Base Portsmouth<strong>

Captain Bernard McCaffrey was, all things considered, not entirely displeased with developments in recent weeks. Originally home-ported out of Portsmouth, in the British Isles, the _Jones_ had yet to return there since the affair in Germany, although he had been keenly interested in the news that, with the commanders fleeing back to the Atlantic Federation's mainland or to Heaven's Base, much of the personnel stationed in the British Isles had rebelled, throwing their lot in with their more tolerant neighbor to the east.

_'Germany changed everything.'_ He thought, smiling grimly.

So when he had received his latest orders from Portsmouth, he had been rather surprised, but not shocked. In accordance with those orders, he had set sail from Wilhelmshaven, returning to Portsmouth.

Before setting sail however, he had called all his crew to briefing.

"As you are now all aware, the Eurasian Federation is currently in a state of open warfare against the Atlantic Federation." He had said. There had been some uncomfortable shifting from some of the ship's own personnel, as there were not a few Eurasian crewmen onboard as well. "Many of you will also know that this ship's base of operations of Plymouth has declared their opposition to the Blue Cosmos-allied elements of the Alliance and their support of the actions of President Baum and Vice-President Marshall. I have decided that I intend to do likewise."

The silence that followed stretched for a number of minutes. "I understand this is a difficult situation to be in. And so, I will not order you to follow me. If any of you feel uncomfortable with this, you may leave now. I will not stop you, and you will be provided transportation back to the Atlantic Federation mainland."

Several of the pilots present had stood, most of them saluting curtly, and left the room. The others had remained firmly seated. All told, only eleven had left the ship.

And now, he stood in his ship's ready room, preparing to brief his pilots, among whom were the two aces of the 501st - the taciturn, coldly efficient Sven, and the more outspoken, cynical Mudie.

"Our intelligence services have determined that the international criminal Teivel Jibril and his accomplices have been located in Iceland, where they have taken refuge at Heaven's Base. Our orders are simple: Blockade the base, capture it, and bring him and his accomplices in, alive.

Within the next few days, we are expecting the arrival of reinforcements from Brest as well as Plymouth and Holy Loch, in addition to a fleet from the United States of South America."

He paused for a moment, then continued. "Additionally, also participating in this operation will be a ZAFT fleet led by the _Minerva_."

- "WHAT?" Mudie exclaimed. "The Coordinators? You expect us to..."

- "This isn't about Naturals or Coordinators." McCaffrey interrupted brusquely. "This is about apprehending a mass murderer responsible for the death of millions. Besides, you didn't seem to have a problem with them when they were helping us in Hamburg."

To that, Mudie had no reply.

For so long, she had hated the Coordinators, and perhaps not entirely wrongly - she had grown up on Earth during the April Fools Crisis, and had lost friends and relatives during those terrible months of 71. With so much of the planet dependent upon nuclear energy, the global shutdown of the vast majority of power plants on Earth had created horrifying living conditions in what had once been affluent nations - exacerbating already deteriorating economic conditions following the cessation of exports from the PLANTs to the sponsor nations.

She had never forgiven them this, and had subsequently espoused the rhetoric of her former mentor. But now...

_'"The only good Coordinator is a dead one", he used to say.'_ she thought. And yet a Coordinator had helped to save the lives of thousands of her countrymen in Hamburg. And still countless others had sacrificed their own lives in their own attempts to do so, during the rampage of that monstrous mobile armor...

That they had failed did not diminish their sacrifice, nor that of her own late shipmates onboard the _Compton_.  
>- "Fine." She said shortly. "And if they turn on us? There's nothing stopping them from taking us out once the base falls."<p>

- "I doubt that they will." McCaffrey said, "Jibril is not just an enemy of the Eurasian Federation or the PLANTs. He is a terrorist and a monster, and I don't doubt that should it strike his fancy, he would target any other nation just as easily. But in the very unlikely event they do, I'll be counting on you two - and on everyone here - to show them what we're made of."

McCaffrey concluded the briefing by going over their strategy once the fleets were assembled, and a few hours later the fleet of carriers, escorted by surface naval vessels and underwater attack submarines set sail, south down into the Atlantic, then swung back up northward, back towards their home port where, within the next few days, a fleet from the USSA, in addition to the combined naval power of both Gibraltar and Carpentaria, would also arrive. McCaffrey shook his head as he saw the number of ships already gathered from other bases throughout Eurasia and the British Isles, and he prayed that this would be enough to take the base.

The ZAFT fleet from Gibraltar was first to arrive, a few days later. The _Minerva_ sailed proudly at the forefront of the enormous formation, and once contact was established with the base port authority, it was directed to dock alongside a carrier that Yzak recognized from its hull designation as the _John Paul Jones_. At nearly twice its size, the sleek warship dwarfed the Alliance vessel, and with its armament, could have sunk it almost instantly - they'd done it before, with other ships. But not this time.

On the bridge, Yzak stood pensive, looking around at the Alliance ships. Even as his fleet was setting into place, additional vessels from the base at Holy Loch, as well as Eurasian Federation carriers from Brest. The Alliance ships outnumbered the ZAFT vessels nearly two to one, which made Yzak understandably nervous, as well as the rest of his crew.

It was Arthur who gave voice to the concerns that weighed on everyone's mind.  
>"Still, this is an amazing sight." Arthur, the XO, commented. "So many Alliance vessels gathered here...truth be told, it's making me nervous."<p>

Yzak nodded curtly. _'To think that a ZAFT fleet would be here, in a major Alliance base, surrounded by Alliance military a crazy world we live in.'_ He thought.

"I totally agree," Malik, the helmsman, said in agreement with Arthur. "We've been trained to think of them as our enemy for so long...to be honest, I can't help but think if they were to turn on us, we'd be finished."

"Shut the hell up." Yzak snapped angrily. "Everyone's on edge as it already is without you saying stupid shit like that - try to think for a moment before you open your mouth."

"Y...Yessir!" the two officers stammered.

Deep in the bowels of the heavily armed and armored assault carrier, Lunamaria Hawke, Shinn Asuka, and Athrun Zala were gathered around a low table in the rec room, where they were discussing the situation and the upcoming operation. Not quite so large as Carpentaria or even Gibraltar, Portsmouth was all the same quite a large base, and, just like Arthur and the bridge crew, it made Luna nervous.

She glanced out the window at the base beyond, and looked around before speaking.

"Do you think we'll be allowed to disembark?" Standing next to the window, Shinn shrugged.

- "I dunno. I guess they might, but since this is an Alliance base, maybe not." he said vaguely. Lunamaria thought he sounded worried or nervous, and assumed - incorrectly - that the presence of ZAFT ships on an Atlantic Federation base and the potential risks it posed were what had him concerned, just as she herself was.

She saw him glance out the window too, then he stepped away from it and sat back down. He had recognized the hull designation of the carrier docked next to the Minerva, and in fact his apprehensions specifically had to do with that particular ship.

- "I doubt that they will." Athrun added, nodding towards Shinn. "Shinn is right, I think; since this is an Alliance base, it's likely that the Captain will want to keep us aboard to avoid any potential problems."

- "I guess that makes sense." Lunamaria replied.

Later that day however, both Athrun and Shinn were called to the Captain's quarters. There they found Yzak himself poring over a map of the North Atlantic, with Ezalia Joule, who had come aboard the _Minerva_ at Gibraltar and accompanied them as a representative of the PLANT Supreme Council. Arthur Trine, the XO, was also present.

"Good, you're both here." Yzak said, glancing from one to the other, as both men saluted. Then Yzak addressed them both.

"I'm sure you both realize the importance of this operation. Chairwoman Joule, Arthur, and myself are heading to the base to meet with the Alliance Fleet commanders, along with Commander Ruddle, to discuss the fleet's overall strategy. You two are coming along too."

- "Yes, sir." Shinn said sharply. Athrun simply nodded.

The four of them left the ship within minutes, and were met by two armed Alliance MPs who escorted them to the base's command center, and then to the offices occupied by its commander. When they arrived, they were met by Brennan Marshall and President Baum himself, along with a half-dozen military officers among whom Shinn recognized Bernard McCaffrey, of the _Jones_.

The recognition was mutual.

_'I seem to keep running into them, don't I?'_ McCaffrey thought wryly as he looked into the dark, red eyes. He seemed to discern a change, though. Something seemed different about the boy - no, not a boy anymore - a young man. But something about him felt different from before.

The other officers were the commanders of the various Alliance battle groups. The USSA fleet was expected to arrive over the next several days, and a final briefing would be conducted with the commanders of each fleet before they set sail. But this first meeting was intended to be a preliminary discussion meant to determine the overall formation and their strategy once they arrived.

The assembled officers rapidly determined that a blockade by the Alliance naval assets, reinforced by ZAFT Vosgolov-class submarines, would be put into place, blocking all access to the fjord in which Heaven's Base was situated, while the bulk of the ZAFT ships and the Alliance carriers would hang farther back, moving in only if necessary. Underwater mobile suits would be deployed immediately, with aerial assets on standby to take off when needed.

"I expect that they will not surrender without a fight." Marshall said. "We should be prepared for heavy resistance; their naval forces at Heaven's Base are limited compared to Panama, but they have heavy antiship and antiair defenses."

- "I agree." McCaffrey, the most senior Alliance officer present, replied. "I think our surface ships should be focused on long-range bombardment and anti-air defense, and the submarines should focus on anti-ship defenses."

- "One problem with that; the enemy is likely to concentrate their land- and sea-based resources on those ships capable of long-range bombardment." Yzak countered. "I do agree that once the mobile suits are away, the submarines' primary duty should be anti-ship and anti-sub combat; that said, here is what I propose: A first line of defense, consisting of the bulk of our Vosgolov-class and your San Francisco-class fast-attack subs, tasked for anti-ship and underwater defense, along with the Fraser-class ships, plus all the underwater mobile suits. Behind them, we have the rest of our Vosgolovs, which are armed with heavy land-attack ordnance. With them, our Lesseps- and Petrie-class ships, plus the larger Alliance vessels, also armed for long-range bombardment. And behind that, the flagships and carriers, ready to deploy their mobile suits at the first sign of attack. And since most of the vessels have anti-air capability, that takes care of that as well."

- "A good strategy." McCaffrey complimented, keeping in check his disgruntlement at the fact that a stripling like Yzak, who was barely twenty, could have outthought him where naval strategy was concerned.

- "Thank you, sir." Yzak said, and behind him Ezalia allowed herself a small smile.

- "That said, I would propose one small change: Our San Francisco-class is also capable of limited long-range land bombardment using Sub-launched Land Attack Missiles: I propose one third of those submarines be so armed, and hang back with the flagships. Their torpedoes mean they still pack a heavy anti-ship punch, and allow them to serve a dual purpose, since their SLAMs can be fired from P.D."

- "An excellent point, Captain." Brennan Marshall acquiesced, and even Yzak nodded his agreement.

The meeting went on for several more hours, during which the fleet commanders continued to work on the battle plan for the attack, attempting to estimate what they would face and how to handle it. As the only mobile suit pilots present, Yzak and Athrun's insights, and even Shinn's occasional contributions, were carefully evaluated and incorporated or discarded depending on their probable relevance to the coming battle. At Marshall's urging, the formation was altered to account for the possible presence of a Cyclops System, as well. Eventually, their battle plan was ready, and when Baum said he had to return to Hamburg, the meeting adjourned.

It was late, and by now the sun was setting. The group left the building and each went their separate ways. President Baum left, while Marshall and the Alliance officers started to head towards their quarters. McCaffrey would return to the Jones, while Yzak, Ezalia, and Athrun likewise headed back towards the Minerva.

Shinn followed a few steps behind, mulling over what he had heard that afternoon and thinking of the upcoming battle. He glanced off to his left, looking out sea as the sun slowly sank below the western horizon.

And that's when he saw her. She stood motionless at the end of the pier, looking out at the sea. She wore the same dress she had worn the first time he had ever seen her.

"Stella." He said, too low for her to have heard. He was about to repeat her name more loudly when, moved by a sudden impulse she turned and their eyes met. She smiled, radiant, and called his name. She began running towards him, and then he held her in his arms. His heart was racing, and without so much as a thought, oblivious to the fact that there were other people around to see, he kissed her.

After a moment that seemed to last forever, they drew apart, and for the first time since he had seen her he was conscious that the two of them were not alone, and he turned around.

Yzak and Arthur both looked like they'd been slapped in the face, while Athrun wore a peculiar sort of smile, and the gruff McCaffrey looked uncertain as to what had just happened.

"I see you've found him," said a voice from somewhere behind Stella, and Shinn looking around recognized Dr. Kinney.

Stella too knew the voice, and she was still beaming as she turned around and nodded.

- "Doctor." Shinn said a little stiffly, but he was so glad to see Stella again that he could not prevent it from showing in his voice and his expression.

- "In this case, I can say it is good to see you again, young man." Kinney replied.

Athrun intimated to Yzak that they should go, and called out to Shinn to catch up to them when he could, and the two ZAFT officers, as well as Ezalia Joule, still escorted by two MPs, returned to the ship. McCaffrey likewise addressed Kinney, asking her to bring Stella back to the ship when she could, and stalked off with an oddly pensive expression.

Shinn held Stella's hand in his own, as the two walked together towards the dock, looking out at the sun as it sank towards the horizon.

Behind them, Kinney watched the two. She saw the way she looked at him, the way he looked at her. She knew what she was seeing. And she knew that her next words would quite possibly change the lives of both of them.

"Your name is Shinn, isn't it?" She asked. Shinn turned towards her, still holding Stella's hand, and he nodded.  
>"Well Shinn, I thought I should tell you that Stella has been in my care since we last spoke, and you may be pleased to know that she has just about fully recovered."<p>

- "Do you mean...?" Shinn asked, and Kinney nodded.

- "Yes." She said, "Her treatment is still ongoing, but she is basically in perfect health."

For a moment Shinn was silent, mentally grappling with the meaning of what he had just heard, and then he spoke, and when he did his voice shook with emotion. "Thank you.  
>He could not put into words how much the news meant to him, how grateful he was for everything she had done. But the older woman understood.<p>

Night had fallen when Shinn returned to the _Minerva_ alone, more than two hours later. Athrun was waiting at the top of the gangway.

"Well?" Athrun asked. Then he saw the expression in Shinn's eyes, and he had his answer. "Well, get some sleep."

The two headed for their quarters, and Shinn slipped into the room he had once shared with Rey. The bunk opposite his had remained unoccupied since his best friend's death, and it still was. Shinn changed out of his uniform, slipped into his bunk, and soon slept.

Several days went by, as the already massive numbers of ships were reinforced by a small fleet from the USSA - four carriers, some thirty-six surface escorts, and another three San Francisco-class attack submarines - that arrived at Portsmouth. They had also sent a large replenishment ship with an enormous stockpile of fuel, spare parts, and ammunition, as had the Eurasian Federation, from Brest. All the ships were refueled, resupplied, and made ready; every mobile suit was checked over at least twice.

Shinn dedicated himself to the preparations with a determination that even those that had known him for years, such as Luna, found surprising.

At the same time though, he was fearful of the upcoming deployment, when he knew he must be separated once again from his beloved Stella. And so he spent much of the time off the ship, with her - as often as he could get away with without shirking his own duties.

Athrun and Yzak were both aware of this. Lunamaria, too preoccupied with her own preparations, did wonder where Shinn would disappear to, but they had not sat down to speak since the first day they had arrived, and so she kept telling herself that she would ask him when she got the chance.

That chance would come eventually, but not in the way that she would have guessed.

The preparations for deployment were nearing completion, and the fleet was to depart within a few days. Onboard the Minerva, basically the entire crew was on alert, and Shinn had been informed in no uncertain terms by Athrun that he was no longer authorized to leave the ship.

So he stood at his customary place on the deck, looking out at the sea swarming with naval vessels, the majority of which belonged to the Alliance. He was humming under his breath a slow melody, when suddenly he heard behind him a voice singing, slow and melancholy, to the same tune.

He turned around, and found Stella standing on the deck, leaning against the railing, and looking at him.

"S...Stella?" He stammered. "How did you...What...?"

- "I wanted to see you," she said. Then with a troubled expression, she asked him the question he had feared she eventually would. "You're going to leave, aren't you?"

He stepped forward, and he took her in his arms, holding her tight before replying.  
>- "I don't want to," he said, "but yes. I have to go. We have to go."<br>He released her and took a step back. "But it's not for long, and then we'll be back again, I promise."

- "No." Stella said, suddenly sounding fearful, "You can't. I won't let you leave me again."

- "Shinn?" Stella suddenly recoiled as she heard a voice she didn't know from the ship's doorway, and turned. "I heard...who is _that_?"

Shinn turned around, and standing in the doorway, looking at them, was Lunamaria Hawke, a suspicious expression on her face.  
>Luna looked from Shinn to the girl. She was, Luna thought peevishly, very pretty. Blonde, violet eyes, slender and fair-skinned, wearing a rather stylish two-tone blue dress. More to the point, she looked familiar, but at first Luna couldn't quite figure out why or from where.<p>

"Luna!" Shinn said, stepping forward. "That's...that's Stella." He said, then turned. "Stella, this is Lunamaria. She's a very good friend of mine."  
>Stella relaxed somewhat, and Shinn turned to face Lunamaria.<p>

- "Well, what is she doing here?" Luna asked sharply, and there was an edge in her voice Shinn had not heard before. "How did she even get here?"

- "I don't know. She must've snuck onboard the ship." Shinn replied

- "Yeah, well we're going to be leaving soon, so she has to get off." Lunamaria replied waspishly.

- "NO!" Stella yelled, glaring over Shinn's shoulder at Lunamaria. "I'm not leaving him, and you can't make me!"

Athrun and Yzak, who had been discussing their strategy in the upcoming battle, overheard the commotion as they walked past the door, and it caught their attention.

- "What the f...the hell is she doing here?" Yzak growled, as Athrun looked up, asking himself the same question as he recognized the blonde who stood next to Shinn.

Both men stepped out onto the deck, and Shinn snapped a salute, as did Luna.

"The hell's going on, here?" Yzak demanded, glaring from Shinn to Stella, who recoiled, slipping behind Shinn, glaring back at him.

- "I don't know, sir." Shinn said, "I was out here on the deck when she came up to me. I believe she slipped aboard the ship."

- "Well she's not allowed to be aboard the ship, so _get her the hell off!_" Yzak retorted, his voice rising.

- "Yzak, calm down." Athrun said, laying a hand on his friend's shoulder, then stepping forward, he faced Stella and addressed her directly.  
>"Your name is Stella?" He asked her. She nodded, looking warily at him. "Stella, I'm not sure how you got onboard, but this is a ZAFT ship, and you're not allowed onboard. I need you to disembark."<p>

Stella looked at him, eyes narrowed, and shook her head. "No." She said firmly.  
>Shinn stepped forward, and he took Stella's hand in his.<p>

- "Stella, please." He said softly, looking at her directly as he spoke. "I'll come with you, if you want. But for now, you have to go." Stella hesitated for a moment. Then she nodded reluctantly.

Lunamaria looked at Shinn, at a complete loss for words. She had _never_ heard him speak that way, to _anyone_.

But suddenly she realized who this was, and where she had seen her before: In the _Minerva's_ medical bay. And she vaguely remembered a conversation between herself and Heine Westenfluss at the time.

_"That girl's an Alliance pilot, right? So why is he so concerned about her? I've known Shinn for a long time; He hates the Alliance. And yet...It just doesn't make sense. I've never seen him act like this before."_

_-"Well, perhaps there is something there that wasn't there before."_

At the time, the cryptic statement had confused her, and she hadn't known what he meant. But now, she knew.

Hand in hand, Shinn and Stella followed Athrun off the Minerva, with Yzak bringing up the rear, grumbling under his breath. Lunamaria had stayed behind. The little group headed towards the base commander's office.

On the way there, they were intercepted by Captain McCaffrey and Dr. Kinney, and Athrun explained the situation.

"Stella," Kinney exclaimed, "I was so worried..."

- "Seems we've got a bit of a problem, don't we, Doc?" McCaffrey said. "Evidently it's going to be tough separating them, especially given that Stella clearly doesn't want to."

- "Forget tough, Captain. It's going to be impossible." Kinney said, with an amused sort of half-smile. "The last time someone tried to make her do something she didn't want, she kicked him in the face so hard she dislocated his jaw."

Athrun stared, dumbfounded, at the slim blonde, still hovering just behind Shinn. He suspected she would have been trained in combat, but to do that much damage...he knew Coordinators who couldn't hit that hard.

He shook his head ruefully, but before he could say anything, Yzak spoke.

- "So then, how do we solve this?" he asked, sounding frustrated. "She's not..."

- "I know how." McCaffrey said gruffly. "Officially, she's not personnel, she's hardware."

Shinn turned, glaring at the officer, but the disdain and disgust he saw in the man's expression made it clear what he thought of this viewpoint, and his expression relaxed. An equally ugly expression on her face, Kinney nodded.

- "To the Atlantic Federation, the so-called "Biological CPUs" created at Lodonia are not even human, they're just parts that are needed to pilot mobile suits." She said contemptuously, recalling the despicable callousness of men like the late Dr. Rice. "So..."

- "So since that's the case," Athrun said, picking up on her train of thought, "We can use that to our advantage."

McCaffrey nodded. "Report she was offloaded from the Jones, and as far as we're concerned, she disappears. Nobody's going to care - as far as those bastards know, she's dead anyway." The scarred veteran replied, showing as ever his contempt for men like O'Donnell and his masters.

- "And then we can bring her onto the Minerva as a volunteer recruit." Shinn said, his expression brightening. Stella, as she began to understand what they were talking about, suddenly was beaming.

- "But what about her?" Athrun said, "What about any health concerns?"

Yzak and Shinn both knew what he meant; the last time she had been onboard the Minerva, she had nearly died. But everything was different now.

- "They would be minimal." Dr. Kinney replied, for the question had of course been directed at her. "Anything that might still be needed can be brought onboard your ship as medical supplies, and I can provide notes your medical officers can use. And eventually, even that will cease to be necessary."

- "So I can stay with Shinn?" Stella said expectantly, looking at McCaffrey and Kinney. The former glanced at Yzak, who nodded irritably.

- "Yes, you can." McCaffrey said.

Doctor Kinney stepped forward, looking a little sad. Stella too stepped forward, moving away from Shinn for the first time since the conversation began, and Kinney hugged her young charge.  
>- "I'm going to miss you, sweetie." She said to the girl, whom she had come to cherish even as she did her own daughter. "You take care, okay?"<p>

Stella nodded, thanking her, and when they stepped away again, Shinn saw that tears glistened in the woman's eyes. She wiped her eyes with a checkered handkerchief, which Shinn recognized. "You don't mind if I keep this, do you?" she asked him wryly. Shinn shook his head. "Thanks. You take good care of her, you hear?" She said.

- "I will." Shinn said firmly. "I swear it."

The group began heading back towards the ship.

- "So, where are we going to put her?" Yzak asked, the question directed at Athrun.

- "What about Rey's old bunk?" Athrun asked uneasily, unsure of how Yzak would react.

- "Stick her with Shinn? It works." Yzak replied with a shrug. "He's the one who got us into this mess, let him deal with it." Despite the irritated tone of Yzak's voice, Athrun, who knew him well, could tell he was trying hard not to smile.

And he guessed Shinn would be over the moon about it. He was right.

Meanwhile, a small number of crates were delivered to medical with the promised supplies and documentation. These were delivered by Dr. Kinney herself, who spent several hours onboard the ship, going over all the information with the ship's doctor. Also included were her own research notes, as well as what little paperwork had been available at Lodonia itself for Stella, which Shinn, Yzak, and Athrun were able to use to fill out the necessary forms, so that Stella formally became a soldier of ZAFT and a member of the _Minerva's_ crew.

Following this, Stella was introduced to the rest of the crew, who were simply told that she was a new recruit who would be joining the ship.  
>There was some uneasy muttering, as there were a handful of people who recognized Stella, but nobody said anything. Then, Abigail Windsor stepped forward and introduced herself.<br>The two young women were approximately the same height and similar in build, and Abby held out her own spare uniform.

"Here you go. Since you're one of us now, you're going to need this." She said. Surprised at this unexpected act of kindness, Stella blushed a little as she thanked Abby, and Shinn likewise thanked her.

"Well, that was certainly a strange story." Yzak mused later that evening. "But now we need to figure out what to do with her; maybe put her in one of the DOMs or the GOUFs, assuming lover boy doesn't disagree."

Athrun nodded, fighting the urge to laugh at Yzak's choice of phrase.  
>- "Oh, I think we'll figure something out." He said simply. "Some of the crew aren't too happy about it though. And to be honest, I can kind of see their point."<p>

Yzak nodded. He too had noticed the tension that seemed to have arisen from the arrival of the girl.  
>- "Well, nothing's happened yet - and with Operation Ragnarök coming up, hopefully nothing will." He said irritably.<p>

- "I don't think anything will - nobody wants to pick a fight with Shinn." Athrun replied. "Plus, not all of them feel that way - look at Abby, for instance."

- "Good." Yzak said sharply. "This op's way too important; I want everybody on top of their game."

Yzak's fears would turn out to be in vain. Stella basically never left Shinn's side, and by the end of the following day Stella, who now wore the ZAFT uniform given to her by Abby, which fitted her rather well - was basically integrated into the crew. Those few who still harbored doubts largely kept it to themselves. Lunamaria, despite her own initial jealousy, soon realized how much she meant to Shinn. She wasn't sure why she felt so hostile; She and Shinn had never really been anything more than friends, and being around her was good for him. And that was enough, she felt. Though she sometimes wished Rey had been here to see it. She wondered how he would have taken something like this.

At long last, the fleet was ready, and the preparations for launch began, every man aboard each vessel knowing full well they were about to set sail for what could be the most important battle of their lives.

The hope of many, Shinn included, was that with this last battle, Logos would fall, and then the war could end.

He and Stella stood hand in hand on the deck as the ships set sail, both in uniform. The _Jones_ was with them, sailing right on the ship's starboard quarter.

"The last battle...at least, I hope so." Shinn said.

Standing on the docks, Doctor Kinney watched the ships go, and Stella and Shinn both saw her. They waved to her in farewell, and she waved to her young daughter - for so she thought of her - and to the dark young man to whom her heart was given.

She was happy for her; Stella was free now, she would never be used the way she had been all her life.

But she could not help but think, as she said good-bye, that she probably would never see either of them again.

And so she stood on the deck, watching, until the fleet disappeared over the horizon. And then she turned and left, heading home.


	26. Phase 26: Hellfire of Destiny

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** Okay, so this chapter parallels Episode 38, which brings us to the battle of Heaven's Base. There are going to be some changes here, obviously, but the general sequence of events will be mostly the same.

* * *

><p><strong>PHASE 26: Hellfire of Destiny<strong>

**Iceland, Atlantic Federation**  
><strong>The waters around Heaven's Base.<strong>

The most heavily defended base in the Atlantic Federation sat deep in a wide fjord on the southern coast of Iceland. There, docking facilities for dozens of ships, hangar facilities for hundreds of mobile suits, and far more gave the base a combat strength unparalleled anywhere on Earth - even greater now than that of JOSH-A, the former headquarters of the Alliance, in Alaska.

Outside the fjord, the water seemed to be covered with military vessels, as the largest military fleet assembled in the history of mankind gathered just outside the base's striking range. Carriers, surface vessels, submarines and support craft from the PLANTs, the USSA, the Eurasian Federation were assembled. Even a small number of carriers and support vessels from the Atlantic Federation were present.

From Carpentaria and Gibraltar, more than fifty Vosgolov-class submarines plus almost an equal number of Lesseps- and Petrie-class vessels; From the combined nations of the Alliance, a grand total of sixteen Spengler-class carriers, each sailing with roughly a half-dozen surface escorts and between one and three fast-attack submarines - the largest naval combat force ever assembled. Never in living memory had such a massive force ever set out to sea, and never before had the PLANTs and Earth undertaken such a joint deployment.

The fleet's orders were simple, and once the blockade was complete, an ultimatum was broadcast to Heaven's Base by Ezalia from the _Minerva_.

"We, the combined fleet of the Alliance and ZAFT, do hereby make the following demands of the forces garrisoned at Alliance Supreme General Headquarters Heaven's Base: One, all forces currently occupying the base are to disarm and stand down. Two, all members of Logos previously identified as such are to be turned over immediately; You have six hours to comply. If no response is received, then we will attack, and seize the base by force."

Upon hearing the ultimatum, Jibril scoffed. "Durendal's lackeys warn us, and then wait for our response? Those fools must be feeling pretty good about themselves."

- "But are we sufficiently protected here, Jibril?" Azrael demanded.

- "Protected?" Jibril replied mockingly. "We are going to launch an all-out attack, right here and now! Durendal has misled the ignorant masses, saying to them that once we are ended, then the world will be at peace. But we know that this is a lie."

- "You have a point," said one of the others, "even if they do destroy us, they will simply take our place."

- "Let Durendal keep his delusions for now. We will shatter them soon enough. We will destroy him, once and for all, before this world can belong to him and the damn Coordinators." Jibril added.

Preparations were well under way - their forces were ready and in position. Their trump card, the Nibelung, would be ready and being supplied power within thirty minutes.  
>They would seize the initiative and crush the Coordinators and their deluded allies for good.<p>

**LHM-BB01 Minerva**  
><strong>3 hours to deadline<strong>

"Still no response from Heaven's Base, sir." Abby Windsor reported. "Three hours until the deadline."

Yzak was glowering. He wasn't surprised, nor did he expect anything else, which is why he had placed all of his pilots on standby for immediate take-off. He had ordered the other ships to do likewise. So it was that he was not completely unprepared when, all of a sudden, Bart Heim at the ship's sensors reported that the enemy had opened fire.

Immediately, he also reported numerous launch transients - mobile suits and mobile armors.

"Incoming mobile suits and mobile armors from the air and the water. They're attacking, sir."

- "All forces, prepare to launch immediately!" Yzak ordered. At the same time, the Alliance carriers began to pull back as they deployed their mobile suits, the escort ships moving ahead and providing cover fire. At the same time, the ZAFT submarines likewise launched their own machines. Onboard the Minerva, Yzak turned to Bart, at the sensors. "What are we looking at, Bart?"

- "GAT-707E Forbidden Vortex teams coming in from underwater. Also detecting numerous airborne GAT-01A2 Daggers. I also show two YMAF-X6BD Zamza-Zah, two YMAG-X7F Gells-Ghe and large numbers of unknown mobile armors...and...we're confirming one GFAS-X1 Destroy!"

- "Another one?" Arthur exclaimed.

- "FUCK!" Yzak swore. "Contact Shinn and Athrun. Tell them their orders are to focus on the Destroy. Prep a Blaze Wizard and a Falx for my DOM, and get it prepped for launch. Arthur, you take the conn."

- "Right." Abby replied, and the message was relayed, even as Arthur acknowledged his own orders and Yzak left the bridge.

The enemy mobile suits were all Daggers, with some Windams. However, in addition to five powerful units, the Atlantic Federation had rolled out their new mass-production mobile armor, the TS/MA-5B Euclid, developed in secret from the Gells Ghe and Zamza-Zah, and designed to be superior to any mobile suit currently fielded by any other nation.

At that moment, the Destroy opened fire, and the incoming mobile weapons likewise attacked. The front line of vessels were decimated by fire from the Destroy's "Aupfrall Dreizehn" and "Super Scylla" cannons as well as the "Gamzatov" cannons of the four Zamza-Zahs.

Underwater, the enemy mobile suits closed in, and the first wave of GOOhN and ZnO were devastated by the superior Forbidden series.

In the air, the GOUF Igniteds and Aile and Jet Windams of the Eurasian and ZAFT forces could easily outmatch the Daggers, however the withering aerial attack strength of the Destroy caused devastating losses.

In orbit, meanwhile numerous ZAFT orbital drop ships were in position. As soon as the attack began, the word went out to them.

"Operation Ragnarök is now in effect. Descent teams, begin deployment." Instantly, a first wave of orbital reinforcements began to fall. And inside Heaven's Base, they were detected immediately.

"ZAFT descent pods incoming from directly above." The Heaven's Base monitoring station personnel reported.

- "Prepare to fire Nibelung." The base commander ordered, as Jibril watched from above, smirking arrogantly.

- "Condemnations and ideals are fine, but they mean nothing unless you win." He mused with a satisfied smirk. "The winner takes all - it has always been that way. And it will be we who will win."

Behind the base, massive shutters, designed to mimic the appearance of the terrain, slid open, and the giant wide-range anti-air cannon "Nibelung" was deployed. A refinement of the Cyclops System, it directed its energy in abroad, upwards-facing conical beam, which allowed it to take out massive numbers of aerial units in a single shot.

Its preparations complete, the cannon fired, and the descending ZAFT forces were all obliterated.

Onboard the _Minerva_, Arthur was appalled as he relayed the communication to Yzak, who swore angrily. "What the hell have the bastards built here?" He commented, barely keeping his temper in check. He hadn't bothered to put on a normal suit - he hadn't had the time. He opened a link to Athrun.

"Captain, we're ready. Just give us the order." Athrun said, only slightly surprised that Yzak himself was contacting him from the cockpit of his own mobile suit. "We have to do this."

- "You're goddamn right we do." Yzak replied. "Destiny, Impulse: The three of you are to focus on the Destroy. Keep that motherfucker from attacking our lines, and take it down."

- "Roger that." Came the reply from Shinn, a simmering anger in his voice. The other two, piloting Impulse Gundam Units 1 and 2, replied likewise.

- "Athrun, you and I will link up with the Alliance Forces and deal with the four mobile armors." Yzak continued, and Athrun acknowledged. Then Yzak gave Arthur his orders. "The ship is to begin long-range tactical bombardment of the base itself using the Fafnirs and Tannhäuser. Tell the Alliance fleet to do the same."

In the hangar, the Destiny and the Knight Saviour were first in line for launch, and both were moved into the port and starboard catapults. In his cockpit, Shinn was seething at the thought that a second one of those monster mobile armors was out there.

_'The people who do these things...Logos...damn bastards. We can't allow them to keep doing this.'_ He thought angrily. This time, there would be no mercy. He heard Abby's voice over the comms.

- "Activation of all systems confirmed, launch sequence initiated. Hatch open for catapults 1 and 2. Linear launch system engaged. Catapult online, power levels normal. Course clear. Destiny and Knight Saviour, cleared for launch."

- "Shinn Asuka. Destiny Gundam, LAUNCHING!" He said as he got the all-clear, and the Destiny shot forward on the ship's catapult, rifle in hand. At the same time, the Knight Saviour shot forward as well, immediately switching to its high-speed, aircraft-like flight mode.

The Destiny's wings spread, and the advanced propulsion system "Voilure Lumière" that was built into those wings was activated, great fields like wings of pure light spreading from each side, and the dark-blue machine shot forward at an acceleration that slammed Shinn back in his seat.

The Knight Saviour didn't have the Destiny's high maneuverability, but its top-end speed was higher overall, and its acceleration, due to a combination of conventional thrusters and a set of lightwave-thrusters - a less sophisticated version of the Voilure Lumière - was just as high in flight mode.

The two machines shot forward, moving in toward the battlefield as, behind them, the _Minerva_'s mobile suit teams continued launching.

- "Core Splendor 1, you are now clear for launch."

- "Lunamaria Hawke! Core Splendor 1, taking off!" Lunamaria replied, as the tiny little aircraft shot forward from the central catapult, followed by the Chest and Leg Flyers, then the Blast Silhouette Flyer. With the Destiny and Knight Saviour out in front, the four separate flyers combined, and the Blast Impulse began to move, following them at roughly ground level, hovering over the surface. From the port and starboard main catapults, two dark-green DOM Troopers followed, as a second Core Splendor was raised into launch position.

- "Core Splendor 2, clear for launch."

- "Roger that." Came the reply from Stella Loussier, the pilot of Impulse Gundam Unit 2. "Stella Loussier, Core Splendor, launching."

Just as before, a Chest Flyer, then a Leg Flyer followed, and the two components docked together to form the Impulse Gundam, as a Storm Silhouette followed, and the blood-red and black Storm Impulse Gundam shot forward, moving up and sliding into formation opposite the Knight Saviour, on the Destiny's starboard wing.

Beneath them, Yzak's two-tone blue DOM Trooper had launched, equipped with a Blaze Wizard, and carrying the long-handled twin beam axe that had been his weapon of choice when he'd piloted a ZAKU. Its Gigaplex dual launcher was docked on the machine's rear waist. The first of the ship's seven GOUF Igniteds launched as well, and as the three DOMs and the Blast Impulse formed up and followed their airborne comrades, the ship's catapult deployed the remaining six, two at a time, and the eleven-unit-strong formation followed the three airborne Gundams in towards the battlefield

With all mobile suits deployed, the formation split up. With Shinn in the lead, the two Impulses and two of of the ship's GOUF Igniteds made a beeline for the Destroy, while the remaining five GOUFs and the three DOMs, as well as Athrun's Knight Saviour, turned their attention on the four smaller mobile armors.

At that instant, the Minerva launched four MMI-M382G2 "Fafnir-G" long-range land-attack cruise missiles towards the base, while the long formation of San Francisco-class attack submarines that, along with their Vosgolovs, formed the second line of defense fired their own cruise missiles, and the other ships followed up with more conventional anti-ship and land-attack missiles, targeting the enemy naval formations and shore defenses. The much faster cruise missiles each struck their targets, moving too fast to be intercepted and causing massive damage, and while shore- and ship-based interception systems caught a fair number of the incoming projectiles, the barrage was sufficient to cripple the enemy offensive.

As the Destiny and the two Impulse Gundams closed in, they were suddenly engaged by enemy mobile suits. The five units - three Gundams and two GOUF Ignited - scattered, but one of the GOUFs was caught in a crossfire by two enemy units and shot down.

Swearing angrily, Shinn cut them down with the Destiny's rifle, before deploying the two massively powerful 180mm "Megálos Kerberos" High-energy Long-range Plasma Beam Cannons, which he fired into the formation, obliterating three more mobile suits. Two remained, one of which dodged an attack from Shinn's Destiny and succeeded in closing into mêlée range. Beam saber drawn, the enemy Dagger aimed a cross-ways slash that, if it connected, would sever the Destiny from shoulder to hip.

But the Dagger was too slow, and even as he docked the cannons Shinn brought up the Destiny's arm, beam shield ignited. He parried the blade, and literally swatted it aside, throwing the enemy pilot off for a split second, in which Shinn counterattacked with a vicious kick across the enemy machine's torso, a move that had served him well in the past. The Destiny, however, had one thing the Impulse did not: The MR-Q17X "Gryphon II" Leg Beam Blades, generated from a pair of emitters at the top of the knee and tip of the foot for each leg. So this time, when the blow connected, the Dagger was split open, the blade slicing the pilot in half as it cut through its cockpit.

The Destiny immediately fell back, as a missile barrage from the Storm Silhouette's wing-mounted launchers obliterated the remaining enemy Daggers.

More mobile suits closed in, but from below Luna's Blast Impulse fired its own weapons, while the remaining GOUF Ignited did likewise from the air, catching them in a crossfire much as the previous enemy formation had done only moments earlier. Unable to ascend, the enemy formation broke laterally...where Shinn was waiting.

He drew one of the Destiny's two "Shining Edge" beam boomerangs, which also functioned as beam sabers. He closed in on one of the enemy mobile suits, parrying its attack easily, and cut it in half with the "Beagalltach" beam blade mounted to his shield.

Alarms rang in his cockpit, and he turned just as an enemy Dagger fired at the Destiny from behind. Shinn dodged the the attack easily, before a rifle shot from the Storm Impulse killed the Dagger's pilot, and the machine fell.

- "Thank you." Shinn said gratefully, though some apprehension showed in his tone. He didn't want her to be here. But weeks before, she had said that if he was to fight, then she would fight too. At his side.

And so, whenever he could, he had coached her, teaching her how to use the Impulse, drawing from his own experiences. He focused on the Storm Impulse, because he knew it best suited Stella's combat style, just as it best suited his own. Lunamaria, too, he spent time with - she had favored the Blast Impulse for its heavy firepower, which played to her own specialty as a long-range bombardment specialist.

And now, Shinn reflected, other than perhaps his late friend Rey, or else Athrun, there was no one he would rather have watching his back than these two. And he would watch their backs as well.

The three Gundams and the GOUF continued towards the Destroy, when one of the new Euclid mobile armors attacked, firing at the Impulse from behind and below.

The Storm Impulse dove for the deck, shield held forward, and blocked the attack, then countered immediately.

"Be careful!" Stella warned Luna even as she fired the Storm Impulse's weapons. Predictably, the enemy weapon engaged its positron reflector, which blocked the attack. However, the Impulse was a decoy.

The Destiny had backtracked and maneuvered into position above and behind the mobile armor, and the Moralltach's blade bit deep into the mobile armor's body, cutting it in half.

- "Remember," he broadcast to Luna. "It's just like fighting in space, you have to mind your surroundings."

- "Right." Luna answered exasperatedly, but grateful all the same. She had a feeling these mobile armors were going to be a pain in their ass.  
>She was right.<p>

At that very moment, a team of Euclid mobile armors was engaging against Yzak and Athrun, preventing them from closing in on the Gells-Ghe that was their current target, with the result that said Gells-Ghe, along with the other and the two Zamza-Zahs, was tearing into the USSA and Eurasian ships that formed the first line of the attacking fleet with near-impunity.

Suddenly, Yzak remembered how Shinn had taken out the Zamza-Zah's reflector outside Orb, and he backed off, forming back up with Athrun.

"We need to try to take these on two on one. Their shield only defends in one direction - a pincer maneuver should allow us to take one out."

"Easier said than done." Athrun replied as he dodged an attack from one of them, then fired the Knight Saviour's four beam cannons.

Predictably, the reflector activated, but Yzak was ready. Though one of his DOMs had sustained damage and they'd lost one of the GOUFs, they still had enough to do what he had in mind. He ordered one of the DOMs to move in from the left and he moved in on the right, and the two of them fired before the enemy unit was able to regroup, the two attacks catching it on both sides, destroying it.

Another one of the mobile armors fired at Yzak. He ignited his DOM's beam shield, blocking the attack, and almost without thinking counterattacked with the Falx beam axe. The enemy reflector engaged, but to Yzak's surprise, the beam blade cut right through it into the mobile armor's main body. He then finished it off at close range with the "Screaming Nimbus" scattering beam cannon.

"Sabers! Beam mêlée weapons can cut through that shield. Move into close quarters and take them out that way!" Yzak broadcast to the entire fleet.

At the same moment, a formation of Eurasian Federation Windams was closing in on the second Gells-Ghe, and they heard the announcement.

They acted immediately, two of them opening fire on the Gells-Ghe from long range, forcing it to defend. A third machine looped in from below, sabers drawn, and before the enemy mobile armor's crew could react, had cut through the shield, severing its right arm at the shoulder - and thereby disabling the reflector.

The Gells-Ghe countered with the rifle in its remaining arm, killing the offender, but soon fell under the withering hail of cannonfire from the remaining mobile suits.

"One down, three to go." The team commander broadcast. "Cost us one of our own, though."

- "I'm sorry to hear that. But thank you." Athrun replied, and he immediately moved in. However, he had the advantage of the Knight Saviour's massive speed, and he fired the machine's entire arsenal at the Gells-Ghe, which blocked with its reflector. He then accelerated, drawing the two "Vajra Kai" High-output Long Beam Sabers, and drove them into and through the reflector, impaling the receptors on the shoulders and destroying both arms, before he then fired the "Amfortas Kai" cannons point-blank into the mobile armor's main body.

"That's two!" He replied.

- "Athrun!" Yzak replied. "Take the GOUF team and deal with one of the Zamza-Zahs, then link up with lover-boy and back him up! I'll take care of this one."

- "Right." Athrun replied, and while the three DOMs moved in on one of the Zamza-Zahs, he took two of the GOUF Igniteds, ordering the three others to remain and cover the DOM Team, and headed towards one of the two green mobile armors.

Linking up with a team of Eurasian Windams, Yzak and the remaining GOUF Igniteds moved in on the other Zamza-Zah, which opened fire on them with its plasma cannons. The airborne formation scattered, but one of the GOUF Igniteds was unable to evade, and was destroyed by a shot from the mobile armor.

"Bastard." Yzak fumed. "You're gonna pay for that."

The DOM Troopers were on the move, too swift for the mobile armor to track with its weapons, while the aerial units fired from above. On the other hand, the Zamza-Zah had decreased its altitude, so that it was skimming just above the surface, too low for the DOMs to target its vulnerable underside.

Just then, the formation came under attack from a team of enemy Euclid mobile armors, and before they were able to scatter, another of the GOUFs and two of the Windams were down. An enraged Yzak ignited his beam shield and charged in, weaving nimbly from side to side to prevent the enemy mobile armors from getting a solid lock, and fired on the Euclids, which ignited their positron reflectors. The blue DOM slipped by, then pivoted and fired the Gigaplex, before the nearest Euclid could turn around, and blasted it open, destroying it.

The two remaining GOUF Igniteds had moved in as well, and one of them fired its beam rifle and gunlauncher at the nearest Euclid, which defended, while the second slashed at the mobile armor from the side with the "Slayer Whip" mounted in their forearms, neatly bisecting it.

Despite this, the Euclids were still preventing them from reaching their objective, and Yzak's frustration grew as the Zamza-Zah, free from their attacks, turned its attention once again on the allied ships, its cannons destroying one of the Eurasian destroyers.

- "_Minerva_!" Yzak ordered. "Activate Tannhäuser. Target the Zamza-Zah."

- "But sir, that mobile armor's..." Arthur started to protest, but Yzak overrode him.

- "JUST DO IT, ASSHOLE!" Yzak barked over the radio, and the XO of the Minerva nodded.

- "Yes, sir." He acknowledged tremulously

The Alliance and ZAFT forces shifted, clearing a line of fire, as the barrel of the Minerva's positron cannon began to glow. Predictably, the Zamza-Zah began to pivot, assuming a vertical position that allowed it to present its back, and therefore its positron reflector, to the _Minerva_ - relying entirely on the Euclids to protect it from attack, a mistake that would prove fatal.

"GOTCHA! Up yours, dumbass!" Yzak spat, as he pulled the trigger, unleashing a volley of missiles from the Blaze Wizard's twin launchers, which streaked in directly towards the vulnerable underside of the mobile armor.

The two GOUF Igniteds and the Windams followed suit, and a withering barrage of beam cannonfire tore into the Zamza-Zah's underside and it exploded, just as the Minerva fired its Tannhäuser.

The mobile armor fell, its reflector inactive, and the cannon ripped into it, obliterating it, the beam blasting past until it slammed into the shore defenses. Several enemy ships, caught in the blast, were also destroyed, as was the small formation of Euclids they had been engaging.

Almost immediately, the _Minerva_ fired off another barrage of missiles into the remaining enemy formations and shore defenses. Though the battle raged on, none of the enemy mobile suits had been able to penetrate far enough to pose a threat either to the Minerva or to the other remaining carriers assembled, just outside the range of most shore-based weapons systems. Only the Destroy's weapons could reach that far, and thus therefore the third line of attack had suffered only minimal losses.

The submarines that formed the first line of assault had sustained losses due to enemy underwater mobile suits, but their own, more numerous underwater forces had rallied and engaged the enemy Forbiddens, halting their advance. Supported by Forbidden Vortex mobile suits from the Eurasian Federation and the handful of Atlantic Federation carriers that formed their coalition, ZAFT's new model ASSH mobile suits, along with a vast number of GOOhN and ZnO that had survived the initial underwater assault, began to overwhelm the Logos forces and their defensive line started to crumble - aided in this by the skill of Jane Houston, who led the attacking forces, and the superior experience of the ZAFT pilots, many of whom were veterans of ZAFT's campaigns on Earth during the Bloody Valentine War.  
>The enemy had had few submarines, and they had been sunk by either the coalition's mobile suits or by torpedoes from ZAFT's Vosgolov-class and the Alliance Forces' deadly San Francisco-class hunter-killers.<p>

Meanwhile the surface ships of the first two lines had been badly battered and taken heavy losses in the initial attack, but the remaining ships continued to attack, firing their own weapons at the enemy vessels and shore defenses, supported by the swarms of mobile suits from both the Alliance and ZAFT which continued to engage the enemy mobile weapon forces.

Over the base itself, Shinn, Stella and Luna, meanwhile, had reached their target, which immediately deployed its two Gunbarrels and fired an array of missiles from the launchers on its back. Stella, who was of course intimately familiar with the Destroy's combat capabilities, having briefly piloted one herself, dodged the attack easily, and did not waste her energy on a counterattack from long-range. She drew one of the two Caliburn beam swords and, sweeping in from the side, cut the gunbarrel in half.

The GOUF Ignited dodged the attack as well, using its arm-mounted "Draupnir" machineguns to shoot down the missiles headed its way, then fired its own weapons at the Destroy. A futile effort, as the gigantic mobile armor shrugged off the attack.

Shinn ignited the Destiny's right hand-mounted "Solidus Fulgor", positioning himself between the Blast Impulse and the second gunbarrel. He blocked the attack, and immediately moved in, however the Gunbarrel shifted its position and fired again. Lunamaria raised the Impulse's shield defensively in front of her and moved sideways out of the line of fire; however at the same time the Destroy fired its 20 "Nefertem" plasma cannons. Caught in the crossfire, Lunamaria was unable to avoid an attack that shot off the Impulse's left arm, taking with it the beam rifle and damaging the back-mounted "Amfortas" cannon. She was forced to eject it before the weapon detonated.

"YOU BASTARD!" Shinn roared as he saw this. He took a deep, calming breath, drew the two massively powerful "Moralltach" beam swords, and moved in, and as he closed in he felt the same sense of expanded awareness that he so often had felt before.  
>And yet, it felt different - more focused than it had the previous times. He saw clearly the trajectory of the Gunbarrel as it shifted this time to target the Storm Impulse. He moved immediately and by the time it reached its position he was right there, blade drawn, and he bisected the weapon across its horizontal axis just seconds before it fired.<p>

Suddenly, he realized that a new enemy was in range: A Zamza-Zah mobile armor, which targeted the Storm Impulse. He yelled a warning as the Destiny, wings spread, shot off towards the incoming mobile armor, targeted it with the Destiny's weapons, and fired at the same instant the enemy mobile armor did.

The Storm Impulse shot upwards at the sound of Shinn's voice, but the Zamza-Zah's "Gamzatov" plasma cannon sheared off the Storm Impulse's leg, even as behind him the Destroy opened fire with its own Super Scylla cannons. The Destiny pivoted on its axis, and Shinn ignited the "Validus Fulgor" beam shield, blocking the attack.

Then he saw the Saviour closing in, with a pair of GOUF Igniteds behind him.

- "Stella! Luna! Let's go!" he hailed, and the two damaged Impulse Gundams and the GOUF Ignited formed up on the Destiny, with Lunamaria below and the other two above as they turned to focus on the Destroy. They narrowly avoided another barrage from the "Nefertem" cannons, and when the Destroy's missile launchers fired, the Destiny's and Impulses' CIWS were engaged, intercepting the missiles before they could hit.

The two Impulse Gundams shot upwards over the Destroy, and Shinn, still wielding the Beagalltach, turned the long-bladed weapon on the "Aupfrall Dreizehn" cannon, severing its barrel near the base, while Stella did the same using the Storm Impulse's "Caliburn" swords.

"Now it can't attack the fleet." Shinn stated. This was not strictly true - though the Aupfrall Dreizehn were far and away the Destroy's most dangerous weapon, it still had the Super Scylla triple cannon, as well as its missile launchers. If they wanted to take it out, they had to destroy it.

Athrun and the three GOUFs had caught up and were now engaging the Zamza-Zah, preventing it from attacking the Destiny or Impulse Gundams. But as yet they'd made no headway in getting through its defenses - designed for combat in the air, the Zamza-Zah was significantly more maneuverable and deadly than the Gells-Ghe, which made it much more difficult to eliminate.

The same pincer move they'd used on the other would not work this time.

The Zamza-Zah fired its plasma cannons into the ZAFT formation, which scattered, when suddenly the Blast Impulse fired on the airborne mobile armor from below using its single remaining "Amfortas" cannon, an attack which severed one of its four limbs, stripping it of its weapons on that limb, though she was immediately forced to break off the attack when it countered with one of the others.

That, however, provided the opening Athrun needed, as he ordered the GOUFs to surround the mobile armor and fire.

The three mobile suits split up and moved in, attacking it from in front and above, as well as below to either side, while Athrun pushed the Saviour and shot above the enemy mobile armor, then slipped behind it. The Zamza-Zah's positron reflector shield activated, then flickered out seconds later when, just as Shinn had months before, Athrun shot off the side reflector, disabling the field. This time, he followed it up immediately with a barrage from the "Hyper Fortis" beam guns and "Amfortas Kai" cannons that, combined with the attacks from four other mobile suits, destroyed the Zamza-Zah.

With the enemy destroyed, he ordered the three GOUFs to back up Yzak, while he turned his attention to the was impressed. They'd managed to destroy its back-mounted cannons and both gunbarrels, and even as he came up to Shinn, the kid was preparing to move in for the kill. Shinn relayed his plan to his mentor, who nodded.

"Let's do it." Athrun replied, a hard edge in his voice. The four mobile suits moved out, and the Saviour, Blast Impulse, and Storm Impulse turned on the Destroy and attacked.

From below, Lunamaria fired the Blast Impulse's single remaining cannon directly at its main body, firing just below the "Super Scylla" triple cannon where the cockpit was situated. To either side, the Storm Impulse and Saviour fired their own weapons, also targeting the main body, from above, while Shinn dove for the deck, moving in behind it. He deployed the Destiny's twin "Megálos Kerberos" cannons and fired, targeting its knees.

The combined attacks struck within seconds of each other, and as the knees were almost torn apart by the attack and its cockpit was blasted open, the mobile armor began to collapse.

The four Gundams retreated, forming up and heading back into the fray.

"Amazing..." Arthur commented as, on the view screen, he saw the Destroy go down. "They're just awesome, aren't they?"

- "They are giving it their all." Ezalia said proudly as she watched. "Use this opportunity to reform our lines, and move in."

- "Yes ma'am!" Arthur replied, and he contacted the _Jones_, acting as flagship of the Alliance forces, and orders went out to the first and second assault lines to regroup, as ZAFT GOOhN, ZnO, and ASSH mobile suits began landing ashore, lending their own firepower to the assault.

Inside Heaven's Base's control room, the consternation was unilateral.  
>"They've broken through our second line of defense! Enemy mobile suits have begun landing!"<p>

- "Damn it." Bruno Azrael muttered as he saw even the mighty Destroy Gundam fall, as ZAFT and their traitor allies from Eurasia and the British bases began advancing into the base itself.

- "What is this, Jibril? At this rate..."

But when he turned around, Jibril was gone. Taking advantage of the confusion, he had fled, and at that moment, a single San Francisco-class submarine, with Jibril on board, was slipping out through a submerged dock on the far side of the facility, unnoticed by the attacking force.

"How could this happen?" Jibril asked angrily as he contemplated the blow he had just been struck. "Damn that Durendal..." Lukas O'Donnell, nominally in command of the ship, did not reply, but focused on very quietly slipping past the enemy ships - a difficult, but not impossible task as long as they kept the ship's speed below 5 knots, at which it was nearly undetectable. The sub launched, and slowly moved away.

In his seat, Jibril was still fuming. He had to get out. At least, there were still other places he could go, and even without Heaven's Base, they still had both Daedalus and Arzachel on the moon. Theophilus was a concern, but it could be destroyed later - it wasn't a priority.

For now, he just had to escape.

"All units, form up on me!" Athrun broadcast to all mobile suits in range. "Shinn, Stella! We're clearing a path."

- "Right." Shinn and Stella responded simultaneously.

The Destiny, the Storm Impulse, and the Knight Saviour linked up and, with the Destroy and the other major mobile armors eliminated, focused on clearing a path through the new Euclid mobile armors. All three machines fired their weapons directly at approaching mobile armors, which blocked with their positron reflectors, but Shinn and Stella, with Beagalltach and Caliburn drawn, tore into the enemy formation, cutting through the enemy units' shields and bisecting them. Athrun switched the Knight Saviour to flight mode and accelerated, and when an enemy machine fired at the Knight Saviour, he pivoted to avoid the shot, then ignited the machine's wing beam blades, which he used to cut the enemy mobile suit in half.

Behind them, on the ground, Yzak and Luna, along with the two DOM Troopers, followed, firing at enemy mobile suits as they moved in. Also joining up with them were ZAFT mobile suits - ZAKUs and GuAIZ-Rs on Guul subflight lifters, GOUF Igniteds, as well as Alliance Jet Windams and the odd Aile Windam, moving deeper in towards the base itself.

Suddenly, onboard the _Minerva_, Abby spoke. "Message from the Liwad Team, sir. Enemy headquarters is flying a white flag. Enemy forces are beginning to stand down."

- "Please contact Captain Joule and let him know." Arthur replied.

- "And please ask him to confirm the enemy headquarters' surrender." Ezalia added. "And let's not let our guard down until we have a complete cease-fire and our forces have control of the base."

- "Right, ma'am." Arthur acknowledged, as Abby relayed the message.

- "Shinn, Athrun!" Yzak hailed as soon as he received the _Minerva_'s message. "Got a message from the _Minerva_ says the enemy's flying a white flag. Move in and confirm it!"

- "Roger that." Athrun replied. "Shinn, let's go."

- "Right." The younger pilot replied, and the two machines shot forward towards the enemy main base.

The fact that nobody fired on them seemed to confirm that the enemy had surrendered, but when they reached the forefront unopposed and Athrun saw the white flag flying from the base, he knew it was over. He opened up a radio link and broadcast to the entire fleet.

- "This is Athrun Zala of ZAFT's Joule Team. White flag confirmed - the enemy forces have surrendered. Enemy forces show no sign of further intent to continue combat."

In the cockpit of the Destiny, Shinn let out a sigh of relief. "Finally...it's over."

It did not take long after that for the ZAFT/Alliance coalition to move in and establish control of the base. The remaining Eurasian Federation forces, the few Atlantic Federation forces teams, as well as ZAFT systematically moved through the base, and within a few short hours, Heaven's Base was firmly under their control.

Ezalia Joule herself, accompanied by Yzak and Captain McCaffrey, entered the control room, escorted by armed ZAFT and Eurasian military personnel. There, Bruno Azrael and the members of Logos were arrested. However, Jibril was nowhere to be found.

"What?" Shinn exclaimed when he learned this, upon Yzak's return to the ship. "Jibril's not in there?"

- "No. That cowardly piece of shit seems to have escaped shortly before the base fell. He abandoned the other members of Logos and ran to save his own skin."

- "Damn it." Shinn swore under his breath. Athrun sighed.

- "I guess this isn't going to end so easily as that after all." He said.

"Yes it will." Shinn replied, and there was a hard edge in his voice that Athrun had only rarely heard before. "We're going to find that bastard. And when we do, I'll take him out myself."

**Orb Union**  
><strong>Government Headquarters<strong>  
><strong>Office of Cagalli Yula Athha<strong>

Cagalli Yula Athha looked up, a concerned expression on her face, as the door opened and Rondo Mina Sahaku walked in.

Murrue Ramius, Andrew Waltfeld, and her old friend Juri Wu Nien were also in the office.

"Mina." Cagalli asked. "Do you have news?" She asked.

- "I do indeed, Lady Cagalli." Mina answered with her customary formality. "According to the latest report I have from my sources, the battle at Heaven's Base is over. The base has fallen."

- "I see." Cagalli said carefully, her expression neutral. She was still not sure whether this was good news or bad.

- "The members of Logos have been captured by ZAFT and the Alliance Forces. However...this is still unconfirmed, but my sources tell me Jibril himself was not captured."

- "What? He escaped?" Cagalli replied, suddenly worried.

- "He did, apparently." Mina nodded. "I'm still waiting for confirmation. But apparently he deserted the others and made a discrete exit shortly before the base surrendered. Chances are, he headed to Victoria or Panama. Kaohsiung is also a possibility, but less likely given the much longer distance."

- "I hope you're right." Cagalli replied. "Please try to find out more, and if you can to determine where Jibril might have gone."

- "Of course, Lady Cagalli." Mina acquiesced, and with a discrete bow, she turned and left.

What worried her wasn't so much that Jibril had escaped.

Though it was certainly likeliest that he would have fled to Panama, and Victoria was also a possibility, there was a slim chance that he may have chosen to come to Orb instead. She knew that, although they were no longer on the Council, the Seirans retained quite a bit of influence. She simply hoped that they would not go so far as to shelter Jibril.

Because if they had, then it was a certainty that Orb would be attacked next, and she wasn't sure if they could hold off that kind of force...

She would have to hope, and to make what preparations they could, just in case.


	27. Phase 27: Their Respective Choices

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** Okay, so this chapter is almost totally new stuff. Part of it parallels the first third or so of the series's Episode 40, with an additional bit drawing some bits and pieces of dialog from episode 47. The focus is divided between Shinn, Athrun and Cagalli, but it's necessary to establish certain events leading up to the next story arc.

By the way, I apologize if the title sucks.

* * *

><p><strong>PHASE 27: Their Respective Choices<strong>

**South Atlantic Ocean  
><strong>**LHM-BB01 _Minerva  
><em>En route to Carpentaria**

With control of Heaven's Base firmly in the hands of the Eurasian Federation forces - and their allies from the breakaway British forces of the Atlantic Federation - the ZAFT fleet had withdrawn from Iceland and headed south. Of the surviving ships, roughly half had gone back to Gibraltar.

The _Minerva_ and the remaining ships were ordered to resupply at Gibraltar, then continue on to Carpentaria, which they had done. Making an easy thirty knots, they were covering 830 miles every twenty-four hours.

It would be a long trip, but it meant that they had time to make sure, within their means, that everyone was in top shape. Ezalia Joule had left the ship at Gibraltar after receiving an urgent communication from the homeland. Yzak and Athrun, since leaving Gibraltar, had spent hours poring over maps, intelligence reports, any information they could gather, attempting to determine where the hell Jibril could have gotten to.

"We know," Yzak said, "from the interrogations of the ones we did catch, that Jibril was present until near the end of the battle when the Destroy went down."

- "And since by that time the fleet had pretty well blockaded the fjord and we had nearly-total air supremacy over the airspace, we know he did not escape in an aircraft or surface ship - we would have seen it instantly; that leaves only the possibility of a submarine, quietly creeping around the fleet by exiting from that docking facility we found just outside the fjord." Athrun supplied.

- "Right." Yzak agreed, then looked over the map, stabbing at three points with his dividers. "So where the hell'd the fucker go? He could have gone west, to Panama. Or it could have gone south, towards Africa and headed to Victoria. Hell, they might even have tried a trans-polar run to come down in the Pacific and swung towards Kaohsiung."

- "I think we can eliminate Kaohsiung." Athrun said. "A transpolar run is too dangerous, and the other routes are impossible - he can not get through Gibraltar and down into the Indian Ocean through Suez - we watch that too closely. And the San Francisco-class has nowhere near the range to make it around Africa and all the way around."

- "So that leaves Panama or Victoria; And when you think about it, it's gotta be Panama. But we'll need to make 100% sure."

Unable to progress any further, they had been forced to leave it at that; unaware of how close they were to the truth, the two men had retired to their respective quarters.

Onboard the _Minerva_, there were two subjects of conversation on everyone's lips. One was Jibril, the enemy, the mass murderer, who had escaped them at Heaven's Base. The second was Shinn Asuka and the new girl, Stella. After Operation Ragnarök and the role she had played in the battle, the undercurrent of wariness that had been so prevalent among the crew was all but gone, and more and more of the crew were friendlier towards her, not the least because she was soft-spoken, polite - in absolutely every conceivable aspect, the exact opposite of Shinn.

For Stella, it was such a new experience; before, her only friends had been Auel, Lukas, and Doctor Kinney. Everyone else had seemed to avoid her, or else scared her, so that she avoided them. But here, everything was different; there were so many people, she was sometimes scared, but not in the same way she had been before.

Her closest friends were Abby, who had given her her uniform, and Luna, who piloted the same mobile suit she did, but equipped differently. And she was with Shinn. For the first time in her life, she was happy.

And so was Shinn. The two were very rarely seen apart, which left Lunamaria feeling left out, even a little jealous. She had known Shinn for years, ever since he had arrived in the PLANTs alone and, within days, joined the PLANTs' Military Academy. It had been just the three of them: Her, Shinn, Rey. She missed those days, and most of all she missed Rey.

But on the other hand, she and Shinn were friends, and she recognized that being around Stella was good for him; it seemed to alleviate the burden of grief he had carried, a burden that had only gotten heavier since Rey's death. And for that, she was glad. At the very least, it made her own pain a little easier to bear.

She entered the rec room, where she found Abby, Vino and Yolant seated in a group on the couch. Stella was with them as well, and she looked up when Lunamaria entered, smiling.

"Hi, Luna!" she said, beaming as she looked over at her.

- "Hi." Luna replied, smiling. She had such an innocent expression and demeanor, it was almost impossible not to like Stella. At the same time, it was such a contrast with the sharp, flat tones she had heard her use in battle, it was always a bit jarring. Plus, she had saved her ass a couple of times in the last battle. She looked around, then turned to Vino and Yolant. "Hey, where's Shinn?"

- "He and Athrun went outside a moment ago." Yolant replied.

On the stern deck just outside, Shinn leaned against the balustrade, looking out at the ocean. Athrun thought that he had never seen him look so content.

"She seems to be fitting in well." He said, and Shinn nodded.

- "Yeah. And the doc said she's doing better and better." Shinn replied. After Stella had boarded the ship, her treatment had continued, using supplies and notes provided by Doctor Kinney. Only a few days earlier, at the latest check-up, he had told them that her treatment was nearly complete.

"Any news on that bastard Jibril?" Shinn suddenly asked. "Do you have any idea where he is?"

- "Don't know." Athrun replied, somewhat surprised at the abrupt change in subject. ""Yzak and I were discussing it; we think he's going to try to head into space. Which means Panama, Victoria, or Kaohsiung. He did not go south from Iceland towards Victoria, or we would've found him - which also eliminates Kaohsiung, unless they went for a trans-polar run."

"Too difficult, too dangerous." Shinn interrupted, somewhat surprising Athrun. "So that leaves Panama."

"Right; Yzak and I think that's where he went - and from there, he could've headed directly up into space, or he might have gone to Victoria, or Kaohsiung."

There were a few moments' silence, before Shinn spoke again, and there was a harsh edge to his tone. "Though there is one other possibility; He could have gone to Orb. There's the mass driver at Kaguya, and given that when we left Orb back when the war started they practically handed the _Minerva_ to the Atlantic Federation on a silver platter, I would not put it past them to roll out the welcome mat for Jibril."

- "Cagalli would never stand for it." Athrun said firmly. "She would never allow someone like Jibril asylum in Orb - not only because of the things he's done, but it was people like him who attacked Orb in the last war. But if he snuck in, and the Seirans were backing him..."

Shinn's expression hardened as Athrun's words brought back memories of what had happened on the last war - his family's death. And he remembered the Seirans; a fat pig of a man who had introduced himself as the Prime Minister, and that asshole with the purple hair who'd been with him.

It was an open secret that the Seirans backed the Atlantic Federation, and a number of their strongest political allies in Orb and the other neutral nations had turned out to be members of Logos. Even now, they might still try to aid him.

- "I hate to say this," Athrun continued, "but I think you might be right."

- "If that's the case, then I'll take them down too." Shinn said harshly.

- "If Cagalli hasn't already beat you to it." Athrun said only half-joking. To his surprise, Shinn smiled slightly, but there was still something grim about the expression.

He hoped that they were wrong, and that Jibril had not sought sanctuary in Orb. Because if they did, it meant he would have to fight against Orb. And that was not something he was sure he was prepared to do...

At last, the fleet arrived at Carpentaria, where the Minerva was the first to dock.

"Sierra Antares One, Docking confirmed. Welcome back." The port authority officer said as the ship completed its docking procedures and stopped.

"Sierra Antares One, Roger that." Yzak replied. "Thank you."

Soon afterwards, they received orders to report to the base's command center. First to disembark were Yzak, Athrun, and Shinn. Following them were Arthur, Lunamaria, and Stella. Much to their surprise, they were met in the base commander's office by Chairman Durendal himself.

The entire group stood at attention, without moving.

First Yzak, then each of the others were in turn presented with ZAFT's Medal of Valor for their performance in the Battle of Heaven's Base. As the large, ribbon-shaped decoration was pinned to each of their lapels, it occurred to Athrun that the Medal of Valor had been presented to Shinn previously. _'That's the second one for you, Shinn. Congratulations.'_ he thought. However, at that moment, Chairman Durendal stepped forward and began to speak.

"I want to thank you all for your exceptional performance over the past few months, and especially in the last few operations." He said. "You have gone above the call of duty in fighting the battles that you have been in, and for that I am proud and thankful of your efforts."

Durendal then stepped back, and the base commander stepped forward again and said in terse tones "In honor of his distinguished service in Operation Ragnarök, the Battle of Heaven's Base, as well as in other engagements thus far, we hereby award the Order of the Nebula to Shinn Asuka."

Shinn almost did a double take at this announcement, that he was to be presented with the single most prestigious decoration that could be given to a ZAFT soldier. The Commander stepped forward, pinning the rather larger and more ornate medal to his lapel, and said. "Congratulations, young man."

Shinn responded with a salute, as the entire room erupted in applause.  
>- "Thank you, sir." Shinn said formally as he shook the commander's hand, but his voice shook with emotion.<p>

- "In addition, this is for Shinn as well." Durendal spoke up again, and Athrun guessed immediately what was coming, as Durendal personally handed to Shinn a small, square box, made of lacquered wood.

Shinn opened the box, and saw a small, silver-and-gold pin, shaped like a bird's outstretched wing. He gasped, unable to believe what he was seeing.  
>- "Mr. Chairman..." he stammered.<p>

- "This is an acknowledgement of how much we have come to reply on your strength." Durendal continued, looking at Shinn. "It is my hope that you will wear it with pride, that you will continue to use your power, and that you will not betray my faith in you."

- "I am honored, sir." Shinn replied in earnest, as he held the box in his hand. "I will do my best."  
>The officers in attendance applauded again, and once the applause died down, Yzak addressed the commander.<p>

- "Excuse us, sir. We should be on our way." Yzak said stiffly.

"Very well then. Carry on." The commander replied, and Yzak turned on his heel and began to leave. Athrun followed, but stopped, looking at Shinn.

- "Congratulations, Shinn."

- "Thank you very much, sir." Shinn replied formally, to which Athrun raised an eyebrow.

- "You're "sir"ing me, now? You and I now have equal rank, you know."  
>Shinn smiled, then he fell into step, followed by Stella, then Lunamaria.<p>

- "Three Orders of the Nebula and five Medals of Valor between us." Yzak reckoned as they headed down the stairs and prepared to return to the _Minerva_. His tone seemed to indicate that even he still didn't believe what had just happened. "On top of that, three members of FAITH. THREE of them! If Heine were still here, it would be four on the same ship. That's just fucking nuts."

Athrun could only nod his assent.  
>They reached the entrance of the building just as a long, low black limousine pulled up. Yzak motioned for the group to stop, and Athrun let out an audible groan, as he guessed who had to be in the car.<p>

A tall, dark-haired young man in a conservative suit and tie stepped out of the limousine. His civilian attire contrasted sharply with his ramrod-straight bearing and the smooth efficiency of his movement - the mark of a military man, as were the hard brown eyes that peered warily out from behind a pair of wire-framed glasses. He stepped sharply around the vehicle and opened the passenger-side rear door - the clear shape of a shoulder holster momentarily visible as he did so.

The woman who stepped out wore an elegant black, long-sleeved blouse over a short skirt, thigh-high stockings, and polished, high-heeled black shoes. Her hair was long, straight, and bright pink, accessorized with a golden hairclip shaped like a star.

"Thank you." she said cheerily as she addressed the somber bodyguard, who simply nodded. Then, Meer Campbell turned to head up the steps, saw Athrun, and smiled. She climbed the steps two at a time and almost threw herself at him, stopping just short of doing so.

"Well hello, Athrun!" She said brightly, leaning in and giving Athrun a brief peck on the cheek. "I'm so glad to see you!"

- "Hello, Lacus." Athrun said, a dull flush creeping onto his cheek. Yzak smirked.

- "And you as well, Commander Joule." She looked over the group, remembering having met all of them before. Then she saw an unfamiliar face, looking at her almost warily. "I don't think we've met before, have we?" She said, addressing Stella. "I'm Lacus Clyne."

Stella looked a little wary still, but her expression relaxed.

- "I'm Stella." She said softly.

- "It's a real pleasure to meet you, Stella." Meer said kindly, and Athrun was suddenly struck by how much she sounded - not just her voice, but her tone - like his late ex-fiancée. Stella too smiled.

Athrun hesitated for a moment, unsure of whether he should do what he was planning. But he decided that she more than anyone had a right to know the truth. He took a few steps forward.

- "Lacus," Athrun stepped forward, "Commander Joule and I have to get back to the ship." He said. "Are you staying here?"

- "I am." Meer said, and she smiled sincerely. "I would be glad if we could have dinner tonight - like we did in the PLANTs, do you remember?"

Athrun glanced at Yzak, who nodded.

- "Great. I will meet you here, then." He said, and her smile grew brighter still.

- "I look forward to it." Meer said cheerfully. "I will see you then, Athrun!"  
>She turned on her heel, and walked into the building, followed by the bodyguard who had exited the car with her.<p>

That evening, Athrun arrived at the building alone, wearing his uniform, having left his Medal of Valor in his quarters - with the Order of the Nebula he had been awarded during the Bloody Valentine War, four years earlier, which he had kept even after all this time.

Meer descended the steps alone, wearing an elegant, sleeveless white gown - the sort of thing, he thought, Lacus might have worn - although perhaps somewhat low-cut for his taste.  
>She had tied her hair, too, in a high ponytail - a style that he had seen Lacus wear on a couple of occasions, but it seemed to suit her.<p>

"You look good." Athrun said.

- "Thank you." Meer replied. She stepped into the car, then Athrun walked around and entered the driver's seat.

- "It's no limo, just a borrowed military Jeep." He said, and she smiled.

Dinner was a pleasant enough affair, basically a repeat of their first encounter, with one difference. Early in the evening, Meer had looked at Athrun, and had asked him one question.

"Athrun, can you do me a favor?"

Somewhat taken aback, Athrun hesitated for a moment before replying.  
>- "What is it?" He asked.<p>

- "Tell me about her." She said. "About what she was really like."

- "Why do you want to know?" He asked.

- "I told you in the PLANTs; I've always admired her. She's so strong, and beautiful and kind. Not like me - I'm nothing special." She said. "But I've always wanted to be like her; and people always used to say that my voice sounded just like hers. This opportunity that Chairman Durendal gave me - it's almost like a dream come true, for me. But I want to know what kind of person she really is."

She sounded so sincere when she asked, and he knew, somehow that this wasn't just something she was asking; that she really did want to know more about the woman she had been asked to impersonate, and whom she so clearly idolized.  
>"I know that what I am - what I'm doing. I know it's a lie." She added, a little sadly. "But what I believe, what I feel. That's real, all of it. I believe in her, and in what she says."<p>

- "I know." Athrun answered, and he surprised himself somewhat as he said it. At that moment, the red Haro suddenly jumped up, and he caught it. "Wow. It really is identical to the ones I made." He said without thinking.

- "You made Haro?" Meer asked, surprised. "You made it for her?"

- "Made _them_ - more than one. And yeah." He said. "Almost every color you could think of...except I don't think I made a red one." Meer smiled at that, and she listened attentively as he told her about them, and about how their fathers had arranged for their marriage, and about Lacus as he had known her.

- "Wow. She really is amazing, isn't she?" Meer said. "But where has she been all this time? Why didn't she come back?"

Athrun hesitated. He hadn't really seen Lacus all that much, and it was still painful to think of what he had learned, what Kira had told him.

- "After the war ended, she and... and a friend of mine went down to Earth. To Orb." He said.

- "I see," Meer said, "and you went to Orb too, didn't you? That's where you were before you came back to the PLANTs." Athrun nodded. "I would love to meet her some day." She said.

Athrun hesitated again. He had hoped things wouldn't come to this, but he had supposed it might. And she deserved to know what had happened.  
>- "I'm afraid...I'm afraid that's not possible." Athrun said, and his voice cracked as he spoke.<p>

- "Why?" Meer asked, suddenly puzzled. Athrun bit his lip.

- "Because...Meer, Lacus...she's gone." He said bitterly. "She's dead."

- "NO! She...she can't be!" Meer said, a look of horrified disbelief on her face. "How...? Who could?..."

- "I don't know." Athrun said, bitterly. "It was shortly before the war started - I had just left for the PLANTs at the time; It was a small team, who infiltrated Orb at night. I know Lady Cagalli is investigating, but I haven't heard back. But I know they were Coordinators, with military training. And they had ZAFT mobile suits."

- "It...it can't be...it just can't..." She stammered. All her life, Meer had idolized Lacus Clyne. She had known that Lacus was alive, and somewhere on Earth, or so the rumors said. And Chairman Durendal, whom she knew had known Siegel Clyne, Lacus's father, had seemed to genuinely believe in what she stood for.

She had dearly hoped to meet her one day, but now...to learn that the rumors had been true, and at the same time that Lacus Clyne, a woman who epitomized kindness and compassion and ideals of peace that Meer genuinely, in her heart believed, to have been killed. Struck at the news of her role model's death, she began to weep in earnest.

- "Chairman Durendal wouldn't do that." She said thickly through her tears, as much trying to convince herself as anything else.

Athrun wrapped an arm around Meer, and he drew her to him as she wept, and he tried to comfort her.  
>- "I'm sorry." He said, "I know how much it meant to you. I didn't..."<p>

- "No," she protested, sniffling. "I'm glad you told me. But..."

- "I know; honestly, I don't really think Chairman Durendal had anything to do with this either; later on, when we were in Bandirma, he asked me if I knew where she was. I didn't at the time, and I told him so - I didn't learn about what happened until later." But even as he spoke, he had a sudden doubt. Could he really be certain? He had told Kira as much, but now there was just a shadow of a doubt. He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket, and gave it to Meer to dry her tears.

- "Thank you." she said. "For everything." And she hugged him. Not because he and "Lacus" were engaged. But because she genuinely liked him, and she was grateful to him.

And though she knew now that he did not return her feelings, he respected her nonetheless. He drove her back to the building where she was staying, and bade her good-night. He watched her climb the stairway, and once the door had closed, he left, returning to the ship.

**Aprilius One, PLANTs**  
><strong>Supreme Council Headquarters<strong>  
><strong>National Defense Committee Office<strong>

Ezalia Joule had returned to the PLANTs from Gibraltar after disembarking from the _Minerva_ after the partial success of Operation Ragnarök. The reason she had done so was a report that had come in on one of several issues that she was attempting to resolve _sub rosa_, without involving the rest of the Supreme Council, at least not yet.

With Durendal on Earth for Operation Fury, she was one of the two or three most senior members of the Supreme Council currently in the PLANTs, and had essentially sole command of ZAFT's space forces, which were currently on standby, either here in the homeland or in orbit with the _Gondwana_. But as most of the day-to-day operations were handled by the Diplomatic Committee, she had little to do beyond relay the latest reports from their forces on Earth.

The report in front of her was a peculiar one, to say the least; it concerned the loss in some kind of accident of almost an entire team of ZAFT mobile suits, several months earlier - around the time of the outbreak of the war.

"This is certainly a peculiar report..." she muttered, "But I..."

She flipped the page of the report, and her heart skipped a beat. She instantly opened a locked drawer of her desk and withdrew a second report, this one penned in the firm hand of Commander Yzak Joule, her own son and one of the foremost of ZAFT's team leaders and commanding officers. She read this document again, including a complete transcript of the conversation it reported.

Then she summoned the officer who had delivered the first document she had been reading, who had remained outside the office per her orders.

"This report," she asked sharply, "is the intelligence it contains verified?"

- "Yes, ma'am. From an internal source." The younger man replied. "We are working on obtaining additional corroboration."

- "And this source itself is reliable?" Ezalia asked.

- "The intel we've gotten from them has always been impeccable." he answered.

- "Then don't worry about it. I am taking this matter in hand personally." Ezalia ordered, and the young officer nodded. "Thank you. And incidentally, I am ordering you to forget this conversation took place and its subject."

- "What conversation, ma'am?" The young man replied rhetorically as he left. Ezalia briefly smiled, then slipped both reports into a slender briefcase, then stood and left her office after a brief phone call.

It was, she decided, time for her to call upon her old sparring partner in the Diplomatic Committee - a conversation that she was not looking forward to. But it had to be done.

**Orb Union**  
><strong>Onogoro Island<strong>  
><strong>Military Hospital<strong>

Cagalli Yula Athha, after having spent almost the entire day in communications with the Eurasian Federation, the Equatorial Union, and Eileen Canaver in the PLANTs, attempting to determine what was going on, had decided to blow off work for the rest of the day.

Leaving her office in the more-than-capable hands of a secretary with orders to relay any information of note to Mina, she changed out of the maroon-and-white outfit she habitually wore and put on slacks, a red t-shirt, and a light tan jacket, and slipped out, followed from afar, as ever, by the watchful Kisaka.

She had headed to the hospital, where even after all this time some of the most severely wounded of the _Archangel_'s crew were still recovering. Juri, wearing jeans, a yellow t-shirt, and the near-ubiquitous red-and-black Morgenröte vest, ran up to her as she was approaching.

- "Hey, Juri. How are you doing?" Cagalli asked casually.

- "Not bad. What about you, Lady Cagalli?"

- "What have I told you about calling me that?" Cagalli growled half-angry, half-joking. Juri smiled.  
>The two girls were friends, and had been for years now. But Juri's occasional insistence on formality with her was annoying.<p>

- "Sorry. But really..." Juri asked again, this time sounding genuinely worried.

- "I don't know yet." Cagalli said, and she sounded worried too. There weren't may of the _Archangel_'s crew still here. But a few of them were, and one in particular worried her. She met the doctor who was in charge, an elderly man who had known Cagalli all her life and who could be trusted.

"Doctor Minashiro." Cagalli greeted him.

- "Ah, Miss Cagalli. And how are you doing today?" The old doctor asked.

- "Could be better." She said.

- "I take it you're inquiring about...?" He asked, then nodded when she acquiesced. "I see. Well, he's stable. He awoke this morning, actually, and a couple of people have come by to see him."

- "Good." Cagalli let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. "And how is he. I mean, will he be okay?"

- "Well, yes and no." Doctor Minashiro replied hesitantly. "He very nearly died, you know, but the risk of that is past. However...I'm afraid the spinal injury was too severe. There was nothing we could do."

Cagalli looked at him, horrified.  
>- "You mean he..." The doctor gave a sad nod.<p>

- "I'm afraid so, Cagalli." he said, and he sounded genuinely sorry that he had to say it. "I'm deeply sorry to have to tell you this, but he will never walk again."

She spent more than an hour at the hospital, before returning to her room, changing into the blue-and-white military-style uniform she sometimes wore in lieu of the more somber maroon garb of a member of the Council of Emirs, and was just setting down to work when Rondo Mina Sahaku strode in, looking concerned.

"You have news?" Cagalli asked.

- "Yes, and I am afraid it is not good." Mina replied. "The intelligence I have confirms that a San Francisco-class submarine docked at Porta Panama roughly one week ago, some two and a half weeks after the fall of Heaven's Base, and a single man in civilian attire disembarked along with the ship's commanding officer. I also know that the same individual left Panama by aircraft, heading east. I also have here a report from our own military of a transient airborne contact, only three sweeps, off the western coast of Orb approximately four days ago."

- "You mean..." Cagalli started, growing horrified. "Jibril..."

- "I have people investigating as we speak, milady. But there is a very strong chance that he is here in Orb. I believe he is being sheltered by the Seirans."

- "Do the PLANTs know this?" Cagalli asked.

- "I do not know, milady. But I am afraid it is only a matter of time."

Rondo Mina Sahaku's words proved true. Less than forty-eight hours later, even as her own assets confirmed that Jibril was indeed being sheltered by the Seirans, the same information reached Carpentaria.

The following morning, Yzak Joule, Athrun Zala, and Shinn Asuka were summoned to report to Chairman Durendal.  
>"Gentlemen," Durendal said, sounding grave. "I have summoned the three of you here because we have now learned where Teivel Jibril is hiding."<p>

- "You...you know where he is, sir?" Shinn asked. Yzak glared at him, but Durendal simply nodded.

- "We do; I have here a report from Carpentaria's Information Section, stating that one of their assets has confirmed his location." He slid the report across the desk. Yzak stepped forward and picked it up, quickly reading it. Athrun and Shinn glanced at the document, and Athrun's expression of shock was mirrored in Shinn's own expression as they saw the photograph of the man they sought, Teivel Jibril, standing in the company of Unato Ema Seiran and Yuna Roma Seiran.

- "He is in Orb." Durendal said. "For them to give him, a man guilty of horrendous crimes against humanity, sanctuary is simply unacceptable. I am ordering the _Minerva_ to lead a fleet to Orb to capture Jibril by any means necessary."

- "Yes, sir!" Yzak replied, snapping a salute. Shinn did likewise. After a moment's hesitation, so did Athrun.

- "I do not want to attack Orb unless it is absolutely necessary." Durendal said. "But Jibril must be handed over to us, or else we must capture him. I'm counting on you all."

Within twelve hours, a massive fleet of Vosgolov-class submarines and Lesseps-class land battleships was assembled. Their submarine force had sustained severe losses at Heaven's Base, but there were still more than thirty submarines at operational readiness with full mobile suit complements, and supporting them was more than twenty Type-I Lesseps-class land battleships.  
>At the forefront, the <em>Minerva<em>, which would be the first vessel to launch, and the flagship of the fleet.

"Sierra Antares One, now launching." Yzak, from the bridge, ordered. "Helm, ahead one-third."

- "Roger, ahead one-third." Malik, at the helm, acknowledged, as the ship set sail.

Athrun stood on the stern deck, and as he looked back at the shoreline he saw Meer, standing alone on the pier, wearing the same black blouse and skirt. And she waved to him as the ship left. He waved back, then turned and headed into the ship, and as he did, he had a feeling that this was the last time he would see her.

He shook his head, then headed up to the bridge.  
>"If you want to sit this one out," Yzak said by way of greeting, "Feel free to do so."<p>

- "Thanks." Athrun said flatly, looking up at the screen that showed the ships beginning to launch and the formations became organized. He wasn't sure what he would do, still. But he appreciated his old friend's suggestion. It meant a lot to him.

- "Orb, huh." Yzak muttered. "Of all the possible places for us to go, this has to be one of the worst. I dunno about you, but I for one am not looking forward to this."

Athrun nodded.  
>- "Neither am I, Yzak." He said apprehensively. "Neither am I."<p>

There was one other onboard who was perhaps just as apprehensive as Athrun about their destination. And as Shinn Asuka stood on the starboard bow deck, looking ahead, he thought back to his own words, all those months ago.

_If you become our enemy, I will destroy this country...with my own hands._

And now, the time had come where he might well have to do just that. The cruel irony of this was not lost on him, and he sighed, shaking his head.

"Maybe it won't come to that... "I hope." he said. He wanted to believe Athrun, that Cagalli would not allow Jibril to remain in Orb. But he doubted it.  
>"How many more have to die before this ends?" He asked aloud, addressing nobody in particular. He shook his head.<p>

Stella walked out onto the deck, looking for him.  
>- "Shinn...is Shinn going to have to fight again?" She asked. He nodded, and then he felt her hand, small and warm, in his. "Stella will fight too. To protect you."<p>

Shinn nodded, a sad smile on his pale young face.  
>- "So will I." He answered.<p>

They didn't have a choice, unfortunately.


	28. Phase 28: Another Way

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** Okay, so this chapter has some more new stuff. Mainly though, it continues to lead up to the Battle of Orb, so parallels/replaces Episode 40.

By the way, I want to take a moment here to thank someone I consider to be a friend, though I don't know him that well. Because your help is what made this Chapter happen.

So thanks, man. You know who you are.

* * *

><p><strong>PHASE 28: Another Way<strong>

**LHM-BB01 _Minerva_**  
><strong>Pacific Ocean<strong>  
><strong>En route to Orb<strong>

The _Minerva_, at the head of the ZAFT fleet, continued steaming through the night, making a steady forty knots - just fast enough for the slower Vosgolov and Lesseps-class ships to maintain formation. Currently, only a skeleton crew was on the bridge, where Arthur had the conn - the others having gone to get some rest.

Much of the ship slept. Not all, however, slept easily.

Shinn Asuka snapped awake with a start, his heart racing, his pale skin slick with sweat. Panting, he looked around, and as he did he saw soft, bright eyes looking at him through the gloomy darkness of his own quarters onboard the _Minerva_, and he knew that the terrified screams ringing in his ears had been only from his dreams.

Still, it took another couple of minutes for his breathing to return to normal, for his mind to settle down after dark dreams, nightmares punctuated by the blinding flash of explosions. He reached feverishly for a water bottle at the side of his bunk and drank from it until it was empty, then tossed it aside, where it rolled onto the ground.

He felt a soft hand on his shoulder, and saw that a towel was being held out to him. He grabbed it, wiping the sweat from his face and hair, and as he set it down he saw that Stella was sitting on his bunk next to him, looking concerned and a little afraid.

"Shinn..." she said softly, "are you all right?"

- "I'm fine," he lied. "It's just a bad dream, that's all."

He had not had nightmares like this in years. Not since he had come to the PLANTs, and those dreams had been mostly about his family's violent death in the war.

These were even worse.

- "Did I wake you?" He asked her as he glanced at the alarm clock. He saw that it was just after 0200. He could feel that the ship was still moving at the same, steady speed, and guessed that by now they were more than halfway to Orb.

She slid a little closer to him, and he felt her rest her head on his shoulder.  
>- "I was afraid...scary things were..."<p>

He gently held her hand, and wrapped one arm around her shoulder. Her presence, so close, comforted Shinn, calming his frayed nerves and preventing him from dwelling on his nightmares. And soon they fell asleep together, she still nestled against him, the two of them on a bunk rather too small to comfortably fit two people.

But still they slept peacefully.

Shinn awoke first, and the first thing he saw upon opening his eyes was Stella sleeping peacefully in his arms. He slowly, carefully pulled himself free of her and stood, leaving her to sleep. He showered, pulled on a clean uniform, carefully pinning the silver-and-gold FAITH pin to his collar.

Stella awoke as he did so, and smiled as she greeted him.  
>He sat down to wait while she got ready, and the two of them went down to breakfast together.<p>

There, they found an exhausted-looking Vino and Yolant, who'd both just come off watch and had decided to get some food before crashing. Also present was Lunamaria, who was chatting animatedly with Abigail Windsor.

Of Athrun, he saw no sign.

Once the two had their trays, they made their way over to sit together with the group.

"Morning you two." Luna said mock-seriously. "You sure slept in - it's almost 7:30, and I've been up for nearly an hour."

- "Sorry." Shinn said with a shrug. Luna simply rolled her eyes.

- "Whatever." she said, but Shinn, who had known Luna for years, knew she was kidding. Then she turned to her newest teammate and fellow Impulse pilot. "How about you, Stella? How're you doing this morning?"

- "I'm doing good." The blonde replied, then looked inquiringly at Abby.

- "I'm fine - I was about to head up to the bridge, actually - I come on duty in a few minutes." Abby said. "I'll see you later, though."

- "Okay. See you later." Stella said as Abby stood and left.

- "You okay, Shinn? You look kinda tense." Lunamaria asked as she looked at her old friend, seated across from her with a concerned expression on his face.

- "It's nothing." Shinn said dismissively. "Just thinking about this next operation."

- "Orb, huh?" Luna said understandingly. "Yeah, I get what you mean...I mean, I was only there for a bit that one time when we first got to Earth, but you were born there, right? That's gotta be a tough situation to be in."

Shinn shrugged noncommittally before answering.  
>- "And their military forces are going to be tough - remember how much better those Murasames are than the Alliance's Daggers." Shinn said, and there was an odd edge to his voice. "So we have to be sure that all our own forces are in top shape - no wonder Aves is working his crew so hard."<p>

- "Yeah; though I guess you don't have to worry about that as much as I do - especially not with what you're piloting." Luna said half-jokingly. "The Impulse is way beyond a Zaku, but still you and Athrun are so lucky to be piloting brand-new machines."

- "I guess..." Shinn replied vaguely. "Say, where is Athrun, anyway?" Shinn asked.

- "Dunno. Haven't seen him." Luna replied with a shrug.

At that moment, Athrun Zala was on the bridge, in full uniform, and in deep conversation with his CO and old friend Yzak.

"You're outta your fucking mind." Yzak said shortly.

- "Yzak, hear me out. Please." Athrun said, and with a long-suffering expression, the slightly older Yzak turned to face his long-time teammate.

- "I'm probably going to regret this, but fine - shoot." He said. "What makes you think it's even possible to get to Jibril without having to blow the Orb fleet to hell and back?"

Athrun shook his head, but then he started to explain the idea that, during a long and restless night, had begun to form in his mind.  
>- "I've been in Orb for years, you know that." He said, "Now obviously, I wasn't in any position to personally make any major decisions." Yzak let out a derisive snort. Athrun, he knew, had been a glorified bodyguard. Athrun ignored this. "But I was frequently in close proximity to Representative Athha - and it's known that we both served together during the last War, and that we were pretty close."<p>

- "Get to the point, Athrun. You're not telling me anything I don't already fucking know."

- "I know Cagalli would never deliberately shelter Jibril - and the Seirans are no longer officially members of Orb's government, which means they have a lot less influence. I think if I can approach the Orb government diplomatically, on their own ground, between Cagalli and I there's a better than even chance we can get ahold of Jibril without a shot being fired."

- "You do know we have our orders, right?" Yzak asked.

- "Right - our orders are to apprehend Jibril _by any means necessary._" Athrun assented. "Which means we are authorized to engage militarily if it should come to that. It does not mean we can't try something else before exercising the military option."

- "You know...You actually have a point, there" Yzak said hesitantly, "Smartass bastard." He added under his breath, which caused Athrun to smile.

- "Between you and me, an ultimatum is not gonna do it. Once we get there, this is going to be a bloodbath, guaranteed." Athrun said. "And I have to try anything I can to prevent that."

Yzak shook his head exasperatedly. But the worst part was, he agreed. Militarily, Orb was technologically at least a match for the PLANTs, if not better; their only disadvantage was numerical - even with the restrictions of the Lindemann Plan - and thus the Treaty of Junius Seven - the ZAFT forces outnumbered Orb's more than ten to one. The totality of the Alliance forces was more than triple that - the only reason that ZAFT had been so successful this time around was the schism within the Alliance itself.

- "This is way above my pay grade, Athrun - we have to contact Carpentaria for a decision on this."

Both men were members of FAITH, and they understood what that meant. They would have to sell their idea to Durendal himself - absent the Supreme Council, only he could authorize a move like this.

"Hmm...it certainly is an intriguing proposal." Durendal said slowly after Athrun had explained his idea. "But why did this occur to you now, Athrun?"

- "Ever since we set sail, I've been racking my brain trying to find a solution for this. Because I honestly believe that a battle with Orb is one that we can avoid; I know that their ideals, their desire for peace is something that we all share and aspire to. And I believe that it is possible to prevail upon them to turn over Jibril to us."

- "Yes, I see." Durendal said pensively. "And of course, you wish to avoid the country becoming a battleground again."

- Athrun thought of Shinn, his family ripped from him by war when he was just fourteen. He thought of Cagalli, not much older than that when she had been forced to watch her father die, along with so many others.

- "If we do this - if we attack Orb...in the end, are we really any better than them?" He asked Durendal, the meaning of the question plain: _Them_ was the Atlantic Federation and Blue Cosmos - or rather, Logos, the enemy of the PLANTs and of all mankind.

Durendal hesitated for a moment, seeming impressed by the bold rashness of the statement. "There is something else, as well." Durendal added then, with the same sly expression Athrun had seen on his face a few times before. "Jibril, as we now know, is in Orb, under the protection of the former Prime Minister."

- "Unato Ema Seiran." Athrun supplied, nodding his agreement. "And his son Yuna Roma Seiran, who was also a member of the Council of Emirs."

- "Quite so. And of course, Jibril himself must be brought to justice, to answer for the appalling crimes he has committed." Durendal replied. "But while the Seirans themselves are no longer of much concern, they may still have allies in Orb's government, allies who are in a position to...influence the course of action Orb may take."

The blood drained from Athrun's face as he considered the implications of Durendal's statement. He had worried that the Seirans may still prove troublesome, but had not considered it from this angle. Which, he reflected, was probably why he was a soldier and not a politician.

- "You mean," Yzak interjected, "that Jibril may, through these allies, attempt to manipulate Representative Athha."

- "Indeed." Durendal answered with a nod. Athrun steeled himself, his resolve greater than ever.

- "That is all the more reason why I have to do this." He said firmly.

- "Very well, then" Durendal said finally. "I will authorize your mission - you may of course, with my permission and under your authority as a member of FAITH, make any arrangements with the forces you have currently available to carry it out as you see fit."

- "Thank you, sir!" Athrun replied sincerely.

- "You can't take the Saviour." Yzak said sharply. "A top-of-the-line, armed ZAFT mobile suit on potential enemy territory? No fucking way."

- "I agree." Durendal said. "That I am not allowing - you may not, under any circumstance, take the Knight Saviour on this endeavor."

- "A Core Splendor, then." Athrun said, and after a moment's hesitation, Durendal nodded.

- "Right - Get to the hangar, tell them to strip the weapons from Core Splendor Two and fit it with external propellant tanks on the wing hardpoints, then get it prepped for launch." Yzak assented. Athrun thanked the Chairman, then Yzak, and left Yzak's quarters to head down to the hangar.

"Commander Joule." Durendal added gravely once Athrun was gone.

- "Sir?" Yzak inquired stiffly.

- "Your own orders still stand." The Chairman added. "You will place your forces in a blockade of the island. You will issue an ultimatum demanding they hand over Jibril. And you will give them a delay of no more than three hours."

- "Right."

- "I will add this: You have my authorization to begin your attack, at your discretion,_ at any point before that delay is expired_, if you should deem it necessary." Durendal then said. "I do not want this attempt at diplomacy to jeopardize in any way your attack plan." Then Durendal cut the link. Yzak shook his head, then left his quarters and returned to the bridge.

Soon, however, the second of the Minerva's two Core Splendors was ready for takeoff on the central catapult. Its nose-mounted 20mm vulcan guns had been stripped of their ammunition, as well as the two light missile canisters it carried on wing-mounted hardpoints. Instead, a propellant tank had been installed under each wing, ensuring a sufficient fuel supply for the little aircraft to make it to Orb and back, if necessary.

Athrun, wearing his red-and-black flight suit, was in the ship's ready room adjacent to the hangar, waiting anxiously. He looked up at the wall-mounted monitor as it lit up, and a communication from Abigail Windsor on the bridge informed him that the Core Splendor was ready for takeoff. He thanked her and headed down to the hangar, where he boarded the aircraft and began launch prep.

"Course clear; all systems normal. Core Splendor, cleared for takeoff." Abby's voice announced over the radio link.

- "Roger that. Athrun Zala, Core Splendor launching!" Athrun announced, as the little blue-and-white aircraft shot forward from the catapult and took flight.

"Man, I don't know what he's playing at." Yolant commented from the hangar. "Besides, doesn't he realize that taking the Core Splendor means we can't deploy the Impulse?"

- "We still have the other one. Though if he's not here, we can't launch the Saviour either." Vino replied. "But I'm sure he knows what he's doing."

"Man, I hope you're right." Yolant said, sounding unconvinced.

**Orb Union Military HQ**  
><strong>Kaguya<strong>

"The Second Home Defense Fleet is reporting they are ready and standing by for immediate deployment." An officer announced in the massive primary control room of Orb's Military HQ, and Cagalli Yula Athha let out a sigh of relief.

The _Takemikazuchi_, fully repaired and freshly supplied with a corps of thirty-six Astrays and 12 Murasames, plus its escorts, were ready. She also had land-based forces, an even mix of Flight and Littoral Type Astrays, plus a smaller number of Murasames, along with the First Home Defense Fleet, which while it lacked a dedicated carrier flagship, was still a fairly numerous force of Aegis-class ships, each one carrying between one and three Astrays on its decks, as well as Kuraomikami-class escort ships.

- "Thank you." she said, sounding as relieved as she felt.

- "It seems preparations are under way." Rondo Mina Sahaku said. Cagalli nodded.

- "As much as I would prefer to believe otherwise, it seems at this point that a battle against ZAFT is inevitable." Cagalli said resentfully. "And I would prefer that Orb not burn to the ground again. I will do everything in my power to prevent it."

- "A wise course." Mina agreed. At that moment, a new contact appeared on their screens as an unidentified aircraft entered the range of Orb's shore-based long-range sensors. After a brief exchange with the aircraft's pilot, a younger NCO stood and walked over to where the two women stood.

- "Ma'am, I have an unidentified aircraft incoming whose pilot is demanding to speak to you personally." He said. "He claims to be a diplomatic envoy from the PLANTs, and is requesting clearance to land."

- "What type of aircraft?" Mina asked sharply.

- "Unknown, ma'am." The NCO asked. "Best guess, it appears to be a short-range fighter."

- "Which means it did _not_ come directly from the PLANTs - but from an approaching ZAFT fleet. The enemy is nearly upon our doorstep." Mina replied evenly, with a significant look at her young leader.

- "Yet they extend an olive branch. If they are attempting a diplomatic solution, we may be able to avoid a battle after all." Cagalli replied, sounding hopeful. Then, turning to the NCO. "Send two Astray-Fs to intercept. Direct the aircraft to land here, and have MPs standing by. I am heading down to meet this diplomatic envoy personally."

- "Yes ma'am!"

A short time later, Cagalli and Mina both stood, flanked by a half-dozen MPs carrying automatic rifles, as two Astrays approached, in between which she saw approach a tiny, blue-and-white fighter, which to her eye appeared unarmed and was carrying two wing-mounted propellant tanks.

"Was it wise to come out here in person, milady?" Mina asked. "I could have met this individual myself and ensured he was brought before you and the Council."

Cagalli, as soon as she had made her decision, had called for an emergency meeting of the entire Council of Emirs, which would take place within half an hour.  
>She smiled at Mina's concern, but she herself was not worried. If a ZAFT fleet was approaching, it was better than even odds the flagship would be the <em>Minerva<em>. Which meant, based on what she had learned after speaking to her friends from the _Archangel_ after their return, that she knew exactly who the envoy was.

_'There can't possibly be two people in the PLANTs bone-headed enough to try something like this.'_ she thought. But her reply to her trusted military Commander-in-Chief was carefully neutral.

- "He asked to speak with me personally. It's only natural that I be here - and besides, I'm not so naïve as to be here without protection." She said evenly.

- "Very well, then." Mina answered skeptically, but said nothing else.

The aircraft landed, and Cagalli was struck by how small it was - less than half the size of a SkyGrasper. She watched the pilot step out onto its wing, wearing a red-and-black ZAFT mobile suit pilot's flight suit, with a peculiar white emblem on the left breast. The tinted visor of the helmet was lowered, so she could not see his face, but as she watched him, he removed the helmet, and she found herself, for the first time in several months, standing face to face with Athrun Zala.

He glanced from her to Mina and the six armed MPs, weapons at the ready, and smiled briefly before setting the helmet down on the seat of his aircraft, then shut and locked the canopy before stepping nimbly down onto the ground.

"Representative Athha." He said formally. "Athrun Zala of the Joule Team, FAITH Special Forces. I'm here with the authorization of Supreme Council Chairman Gilbert Durendal, as a diplomatic envoy. It is urgent that I speak with you on a matter of significant importance."

Cagalli nodded.

- "A special session of the Council of Emirs has been called." she replied with equal formality. "We are to meet them in thirty minutes. If you'll follow me."

Athrun nodded, and the group began to head towards the edge of the runway, where a black limousine stood waiting, its driver standing by the door. Athrun recognized the hulking silhouette of Colonel Ledonir Kisaka, and guessed correctly that since his own departure, the massive officer had taken up, once again, the task of bodyguard for Orb's unruly Princess.

Before entering the vehicle, Cagalli turned to Mina.  
>- "Mina, I'm trusting you to handle the preparations from here until I get back."<p>

She then entered the limousine, and Athrun slid in next to her. Kisaka closed the door, which locked, and stepped into the driver's seat.

No sooner was the vehicle moving that Cagalli turned to Athrun and, without warning, punched him in the shoulder as hard as she could.

"You IDIOT!" She yelled. "What do you think you're doing, coming back here like this?" In the front of the car, Kisaka smiled.

So did Athrun, in spite of his shoulder - though the heavy flight suit had softened the blow quite a bit.  
>- "Exactly what I said." He answered. "By now I'm sure you've guessed the <em>Minerva<em> is leading a ZAFT fleet here. The reason they are, I'll bet you know as well."

- "Jibril." Cagalli grumbled. "The Seirans are sheltering him."

- "I know." Athrun said. "And we want him turned in to ZAFT custody. Peacefully if possible."

- "So Durendal sends you to try and sweet-talk us into handing him over before he invades and takes him by force - carrot-and-stick diplomacy." Cagalli said flatly.

Athrun cringed at the metaphor, but could not deny it was appropriate.  
>- "Actually, this was my idea - though Chairman Durendal approved it." He said, and Cagalli grinned in a way that told him she had guessed anyway.<p>

- "Figures." she said. "Only you would be bone-headed enough to try something like this."

Athrun smiled and said nothing. He had not seen Cagalli at all since leaving Orb, all those months before, but she seemed much more confident than she had been there - he guessed that having first masterminded the Treaty that had kept Orb from the clutches of the Atlantic Federation, then successfully ejected the Seirans from the Council had a lot to do with that.

"Well," Cagalli continued, "We're going to have to stop by the residence - your flat's been locked since you left, and it would not be great if you showed up for a diplomatic meeting dressed like that.

- "Says the one who wouldn't wear a dress for the memorial ceremony." Athrun said, grinning. Cagalli rolled her eyes and punched him in the shoulder again.

Half an hour later, Athrun was impeccably dressed in formal civilian attire, consisting of a pair of polished black dress shoes, black formal trousers, a white button-down shirt, and a navy-blue, double-breasted blazer, to the lapel of which he had pinned the silver-and-gold FAITH pin, which he had removed from his uniform jacket before he left the Minerva and taken with him. His flight suit he had packed in a slender suitcase, which he took with him - he would leave it in the car during the meeting, changing back into it before he left.

He and Cagalli stepped into the large chamber in which the Council met to find all of them present and waiting.

Cagalli took her customary seat and motioned for Athrun to take a seat next to her.

"Gentlemen," she started, addressing the room at large and looking from each man to the next, wondering which would follow her and which would side with the absent Seirans in their protection of an internationally wanted criminal. "I have personally called this emergency session of the Council for only one reason: A ZAFT fleet is currently approaching Orb. The reason for this is simple: They want Teivel Jibril, known to be an international criminal, and who is currently being sheltered at the Seiran estate."

One of the members of the Council, a man named Asahina whom she knew was a close friend of the Seirans, was the first to object.  
>- "It's all well and good for Durendal to make his outlandish accusations, but..."<p>

- "There is nothing outlandish about this." Cagalli interrupted sharply. "Teivel Jibril arrived in Orb by aircraft, at night. He is now somewhere inside the Seiran estate. This information was verified internally by our own forces." She tossed onto the table the report Mina had personally given her a few days earlier.

- "And what does this...young man have to do with it. He is not, as far as I am aware, a member of this Council?" asked Kawaguchi, another one of the councillors. "Who authorized his presence?"

- "I did." Cagalli said firmly, as if daring anyone to challenge her decision. No one did, and she glanced at Athrun, who stood.

- "My name is Athrun Zala, of the PLANTs' FAITH Special Forces, attached to the Joule Team. Flight commander, LHM-BB01 _Minerva_." He said formally. The room erupted in whispers at this unexpected development, and Athrun held his silence for a moment, until they died down. "I am here as a diplomatic envoy on behalf of Supreme Council Chairman Gilbert Durendal, to request that Jibril be turned over to ZAFT custody."

- "I would like to know, young man, what makes you so certain that this man you seek is here in Orb?" Kawaguchi asked skeptically.

- "Our intelligence services, with assistance from the Eurasian Federation and the United States of South America, have verified that Jibril left Iceland onboard a San Francisco-class submarine, which made its way west to Porta Pamana."Athrun said evenly. "From there, Jibril was spotted boarding an aircraft, which took off, also heading west. We have intelligence that proves the same aircraft landed here in Orb. We have further evidence that Jibril himself was seen in the company of ex-Prime Minister Unato Ema Seiran, at the latter's residence."

- "Evidence that is verified by this report, which was delivered to me personally by Rondo Mina Sahaku." Cagalli replied, indicating the report again.

- "And how does this involve Orb?" came the inevitable protest from Asahina. "Is it not our policy not to meddle in the affairs of other nations? What business is it of ours what the PLANTs may claim about this individual, assuming that he is who they claim?"

Cagalli's fist slammed down on the table.  
>- "What business is it of ours?" She began to say, increasingly irritated. "To begin with, Jibril is not only an enemy of the PLANTs, but also of the Eurasian Federation, with whom Orb is currently allied. Second, Jibril is also an ally of the Atlantic Federation, the same nation that four years ago burned this country to the ground, and much more recently massacred close to six million innocent civilians in the Eurasian Federation. Therefore, he is an enemy of Orb." She said firmly. "The PLANTs' request is not unreasonable - this man, for what he has done, must stand trial. And I for one would rather he be arrested and turned over to the PLANTs."<p>

- "Or what? Will you then allow your friends the Coordinators to walk in and take him at gunpoint? I, for one, wonder whether you are most suited to be making this decision, given your...personal history." Asahina replied.

- "And what do you mean by that?" Cagalli growled. Then, she took a deep breath. "I don't know what the intentions of this council are. But my intentions are to protect this nation and its ideals, as I have always done, and as I am continuing to attempt to do."

- "By caving to the demands of the PLANTs?" Asked Nakamura, another one of the councillors.

- "By ensuring that an enemy of the Orb Union is brought to justice." She retaliated sharply.

Nearly an hour later, as the deliberations continued, it became clear to Athrun that Asahina, Nakamura and Kawaguchi were still in Seiran's back pocket, and that the best efforts of Cagalli and the allies she did have in the Council were for nothing; a peaceful solution, in these circumstances, was out of reach if it meant going up against the Seirans, and those members of the Council who did support Cagalli were too few to override these three. Most of them had remained silent.

Then, everything changed.  
>There was a knock on the door, and a young NCO in uniform entered, stating that the presence of Chief Representative Athha was urgently requested at Kaguya.<p>

She thanked him and stood, then looked around the room, pausing in particular to glare at the three who had forestalled her only shot at ending this situation peacefully.

- "Gentlemen, it has become unfortunately clear to me that we do not see eye to eye where the best interests of this nation and its people are concerned." She said. "Unfortunately, other matters critical to the safety of our country demand my attention at this time. You may therefore consider this meeting adjourned. But rest assured that this discussion is not over."  
>She did not add that if it did indeed come to a battle, she would personally ensure that all three of them faced the consequences of their actions.<p>

She turned and left. Athrun stood and, glancing around the room, saw the helpless expressions on the faces of Councilmen Namikaze, Yano, and Himura, who had been Cagalli's only supporters, and smiled thankfully, though his expression turned stony as he glanced at the self-satisfied contempt he saw on that of the three who had opposed them.

He sighed, and left the room, following a furious Cagalli as they headed back towards Orb's military HQ.

Meanwhile, at the Seiran compound, Unato Ema Seiran was seated in the living room of the enormous mansion. Seated opposite him was Teivel Jibril, looking as haughty as usual, a glass of wine in his hand. Unato's own glass stood on the low table in between them, untouched.

"Anybody with a brain in his head can see through Durendal's deception here." Jibril stated confidently. "And if he were to take over this world, you know there would be no place for people like you."

- "Right." Unato replied, but he sounded worried.

- "Well, not to worry." Jibril continued. "We will be ready to begin our own counterattack soon enough." At this Unato looked up, a puzzled expression on his face.

- "Is that so?" he asked, and Jibril nodded.

- "Soon enough...once I return to space the Requiem will begin, and everything will end - once and for all."

- "The Requiem?" Unato asked, wondering what Jibril meant.

- "You're an intelligent man, Unato Ema Seiran. And if you wish to stand among the victorious when all is said and done, then you know what is required of you."

Unato nodded. Soon, his shuttle would be ready. They just had to hold out a little longer...

Athrun thought he knew what the reason was for this sudden summons, and when he glanced up at the gigantic screen he saw that he was correct: the ZAFT fleet had arrived, and Orb was surrounded.  
>A blockade was in effect, the ships stationed outside Orb's territory, just beyond the range of Orb's shore-based defenses - though, Athrun knew, those defenses were within striking range of the Minerva's devastatingly powerful Fafnir long-range missiles.<p>

In Orb's Military Defense Headquarters, the atmosphere was one of tense readiness.

"What's the situation?" Cagalli asked as she glanced up at the screen.

- "Well, ma'am," the officer on duty started to say, "They've pretty well blockaded Onogoro and Kaguya, which is where the bulk of their forces are concentrated, but they have forces all around the main island as well - in international waters, just outside the range of our shore defenses. Just before you arrived, they issued an ultimatum."

_'Just like Heaven's Base'_ Cagalli thought, worriedly.

"They're giving us a maximum of three hours." She said as she read the printout the officer had handed her. "Past that delay, they will invade. DAMN IT!" Cagalli swore as she threw the printout into the nearest wastebasket. Then she turned and began to issue additional orders.

"Open up a communications line to the flagship - I want to talk to Commander Joule immediately." Cagalli ordered, a panicked edge creeping into her voice. "If I can just talk to him, maybe I can convince him to hold his forces back and give us a little more time."

Then, she turned to Mina to ask for her assistance, when suddenly another voice rang out.

- "I'm getting a new broadcast signal, ma'am."

- "From the ZAFT fleet?" She asked.

- "No ma'am." came the reply. "We're still triangulating, but it seems to be coming from the Seiran compound!"

Cagalli blanched, dreading what was coming next.  
>- "Put it on the monitor immediately!" She ordered frantically. 'What the hell is Seiran up to?' she asked herself, afraid of the answer.<p>

The image that appeared on the screen confirmed her worst fears. Yuna Roma Seiran, in uniform - the gall of him, when he was neither a military officer nor a member of Orb's government, angered Cagalli almost as much as his words horrified her.

- "My name is Yuna Roma Seiran, and I address this message to the fleet that is currently illegally blockading this nation. The individual by the name of Lord Jibril, whom you have claimed to be in Orb and demanded we hand over, is in fact not present. Furthermore, this kind of intimidation, threatening to use force if your unreasonable demands are not met is an insult and a violation of the sovereignty of this nation. We find it distasteful, and therefore insist that you withdraw your forces at once from our waters."

- "That MORON!" Cagalli roared in anger. "Does he seriously think that crap is helping?"  
>She turned to Mina.<br>"Mina, I want you to take personal command of the military police." she said.

- "Of course, milady." Mina said impassively. "And their orders?"

- "Invade the Seiran compound." She said, her voice shaking with barely-controlled anger. "Find Jibril and arrest him. Also, arrest Yuna Roma Seiran and Unato Ema Seiran - the charge is treason."

- "As you wish, Lady Cagalli."

Athrun, meanwhile, looked up at the screen, as while the Minerva remained in the rear, the other ZAFT ships slowly closed in, entering Orb territorial waters as they began to deploy their forces.

- "So it begins." He said grimly. Cagalli, at his side, nodded.

She only hoped that, this time, she could find a way to stop this before it was too late...


	29. Phase 29: Golden Legacy

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** Okay, so this chapter parallels/replaces Episodes 40 and 42-43, with the Battle of Orb. Par for the course, but it will be both similar to and very different from what happened in the series

* * *

><p><strong>PHASE 29: Golden Legacy<strong>

**LHM-BB01 _Minerva_  
><strong>**Off the coast of Orb**

The reaction among the ZAFT fleet to the broadcast by Yuna Roma Seiran, including the _Minerva_, was one of confusion - not so much at the content of the broadcast, but at the transparency of the lie.

"What?!" Arthur Trine asked, "Why is..."

- "Shut the fuck up and sit your ass down!" Yzak snapped, and the cowed XO took his place as ordered.

Truth be told, he had no idea what had possessed the Seirans to make such a broadcast; especially since he not only knew for a fact that Jibril was in their estate, but he also knew for a fact that the Seirans were no longer on the Council of Emirs, and therefore did not speak for the Orb government.  
>He had hoped Athrun could get <em>something<em> done, but apparently he had failed.

Yzak had his orders; he knew what he had to do next. With a resigned sigh, he opened up a fleet-wide communications line. "This is Sierra Antares One to all forces. Operation Fury is a go. All ships upgrade to Condition Red and begin your attack!" He ordered.  
>"If they insist on trying to bullshit us, then I guess we have no other choice but to go in and drag that bastard Jibril out of Orb by force." Yzak said, glowering.<p>

The announcement was broadcast throughout the fleet, as the order went out to commence the attack.  
>- "Operation Fury is now under way! Upgrade to Condition Red! I repeat, Operation Fury is now under way! Upgrade to Condition Red!" Onboard every ship, the same preparations were under way as pilots prepared to launch their mobile suits, and weapons systems were brought online.<p>

- "Confirming target locations: The Seiran estate and Orb Military Headquarters on the mainland; and the spaceport at Kaguya."  
>The same targets and orders were relayed to every unit.<p>

Onboard the _Minerva_, preparations were also under way, but for now the ship's pilots remained on standby.  
>"The Faton Team's ASSH and Wheeler Team's GOOhNs are ready for launch." Abby reported.<p>

- "Roger that. Tell them to launch immediately." Yzak replied. "Remember, our objective is to capture Jibril as soon as possible; keep collateral damage to a minimum. Relay those orders to all units."

- "Right." Arthur replied.

- "What about our own machines?" Yzak turned to Abby.

- "All DOM Trooper units are being prepped for launch." Abby supplied. "The Destiny and Impulse Unit 1 are ready. Pilots are standing by in the briefing room."

"Good." Yzak replied, and turned to face forward.

As the first wave of mobile suits was launched from the ZAFT fleet, they were immediately detected by the Orb forces and their impending arrival was reported instantly.

"Lady Cagalli!" One of the soldiers in Orb's military HQ reported. "Detecting enemy mobile suit launches! They're approaching from the air and from underwater!"

- "Damn." Cagalli swore under her breath. "Tell the First and Second Fleets to deploy immediately." Cagalli ordered. "Colonel Todaka is to take overall command of the naval defense from the _Takemikazuchi_."

Colonel Fumihiko Todaka, Athrun thought. He had met the man only once, but knew him to be honorable, and loyal to Cagalli.

_'Shinn knows him somehow'_ Athrun suddenly remembered, from the battle off the coast of Crete - he had been watching from medical when the Impulse had suddenly stopped its attack on the ship. And Shinn had opened the cockpit, which had remained open for a few minutes before the Impulse finally took off.  
>Athrun made a mental note to ask Shinn about that sometime.<p>

- "What about our land-based forces?" Cagalli asked as she stood.

- "Ready, ma'am." Came the reply. "The Third Home Defense Battalion has four squadrons of Astray-Fs, and two each of Astray-LCTs and Murasames."

- "Get Squadrons one through four airborne immediately and send them to defend the Izanagi shoreline." Cagalli ordered. "The LCT squadrons as well. Tell the Murasame squadrons to wait until I arrive, and to make sure one Murasame is ready for me."

- "Milady, you're taking off yourself?"

- "If a leader won't lead themselves, how can they expect their subordinates to follow?" She said rhetorically, noting an enigmatic smile turning up the corner of Rondo Mina Sahaku's mouth. She ignored it, and turned to leave when the door opened and she suddenly slammed headlong into someone, who caught her by the shoulder.

"And where do you think you are going?" Said the voice of Ledonir Kisaka. Behind him, Cagalli saw Erica Simmons of Morgenröte.

- "I'm going out there. Get out of my way, Kisaka."

- " Before you do," Erica intervened, " there is something I want you to see. It's something Lord Uzumi left for you."

- "My...my father?" Cagalli said suddenly. Erica nodded.

Behind them, Mina left orders to Colonel Soga, the ranking officer present, to take charge of the defense forces until she returned. Then, Kisaka, Erica Simmons, Mina and Cagalli left.

Soon, they stood before a massive hangar door, and Cagalli noticed there was something engraved on it.

"A wish that the day this door need be opened may never come." She read aloud. As if in response, the doors slid open, but the hangar was dark. The group, Cagalli in the lead, began to enter and as they did so, it was Rondo Mina Sahaku who spoke.

- "The day this door need be opened - the day that once again, Orb should face annihilation." She said. "Four years ago, Lord Uzumi Nara Athha began to make preparations so that should that day come, we would be ready. And this is his legacy: The ultimate Shield to protect the ideals of our nation: The MBF-X1 Akatsuki."

As she spoke, Erica Simmons pushed a lever that activated lights inside the hangar, and Cagalli gaped as she saw the single mobile suit it held. It looked, she thought, like her Strike Rouge, but sleeker, and to an expert it would be visibly several degrees more sophisticated. And its entire body was golden, gleaming under the harsh lights.

- "The...Akatsuki?" She said.

- "Yes," Erica Simmons added. "Commissioned by Lord Uzumi four years ago. It was incomplete at the time the Alliance attacked, and so it was smuggled out of Orb and into space, where it was completed at Ame-no-Mihashira after the war ended, then sealed in this hangar. It has been here ever since."

She flipped a second switch, and from concealed speakers, the deep voice of the late Lord Uzumi Nara Athha filled the hangar.  
>"Cagalli," he said, "There are many things that I regret I was not able to teach you myself. But I know that you have people around you, who love and support you. From them, you can learn what you may need."<p>

- "Father..." Cagalli said under her breath, and she felt tears welling up in her eyes.

"If you are hearing this, then it means that I have died, and yet you are now again in need of additional power. Consider this gift my answer to that need. Power is simply that, and no more. What matters is what one makes of it. Foolish are those who desire it in excess, and yet even moreso are those who resent it inherently, for no reason." the recording continued. "Even so it is with this; a shield to protect the ideals of Orb, and a sword to defend them. If you need it now, if it will help you walk the right path, then it is yours. I had hoped that the day would never come that the door be opened, and if it has, these words may be in vain. But Cagalli, my dear daughter, I wish you a long, and happy life."

The recording ended and Cagalli wept bitterly, and even the normally unshakable Mina was moved.

Cagalli wiped her tears with the sleeve of her jacket, and looked up at the Akatsuki.  
>"Thank you, father." She said, and steeled herself.<p>

After a short briefing on its capabilities by Erica, Cagalli prepared herself to launch. As she returned to the hangar, she saw a row of Murasames in Flight mode, in gold-and-black command-type colors, had been wheeled in and were also being prepared for launch. She saw their pilots, and felt a wave of relief: Andrew Waltfeld and Ledonir Kisaka. With them was her dear friend Juri Wu Nien, who ran up to her as she entered.

"Lady Cagalli!" she said breathlessly. Cagalli saw the markings on the Murasame's wings, which matched a similar mark on their flight suits: Kinshu - Gold Eagle. "The Kinshu Mobile Squadron is standing by for launch on your command."

- "So, you and I will fly together again, huh?" Cagalli said, and Juri nodded. "I'm glad."

As she entered the cockpit of the Akatsuki and activated it, she saw that it was identical to her Strike Rouge, which comforted her. It would make it easier for her in the coming battle.

- "MBF-X1, Akatsuki. Activation confirmed. All systems clear. Go ahead, launch." She heard Erica say.

- "Roger that. Cagalli Yula Athha, Akatsuki taking off!"

The Akatsuki took off, and soon afterwards the three Murasames followed, one after the other, and formed up on her, one to starboard and two to port.

She immediately saw that ZAFT forces had landed at numerous points throughout the shoreline, and this in spite of heavy resistance from Orb's defenses; the battle still raged in Orb's waters, so none of the amphibious ASSH, ZnO and GOOhNs had yet been able to land, but numerous ZAKU Warriors had, using GUUL lifters to reach the shores before landing and engaging on the ground, covered from above by GOUF Igniteds that engaged the aerial Murasames and Astray-Fs. She selected a point, issued her orders, and the four mobile suits accelerated, heading towards one of the three areas being attacked.

At Orb's Defense Headquarters, the situation was dire.

"Colonel Soga, ZAFT forces have reached the Seiran estate and begun bombarding it." One officer reported. "Enemy aerial units have also broken through Aramatsubara's second defense line - if this keeps up, our defenses on the main island will collapse!"

- "Tell the Third and Fourth Squadrons to regroup and prepare to reinforce the First Defense Fleet at Aramatsubara - if ZAFT forces get any further, we'll be wiped out."

- "Report from the MPs, sir!" Came another. "They've entered the Seiran compound and arrested both Unato Ema and Yuna Roma Seiran!"

- "What about Jibril?" Mina asked. Nobody had seen her return, but not one man flinched.

- "Negative, ma'am." The same officer replied. "There's no sign of him."

- "Tell them to keep looking. Bring the Seirans here!"

- "New contact, closing in towards Aramatsubara defense line." One officer suddenly said. "Three Murasames, one unknown - IFF identifies them as Orb Union military units."

The confusion was short-lived, as a transmission suddenly came in from the Akatsuki.  
>- "This is Cagalli Yula Athha." she said. "I need additional forces to reform the defensive lines."<p>

Even as she spoke, she opened fire on ZAFT forces on the ground, shooting them down using the Akatsuki's beam rifle.

- "Yes, ma'am!" Colonel Soga replied. "Third Home Defense Fleet Third and Fourth squadrons are inbound to your location." As he spoke, a full squadron of Murasames plus another squadron of Astray-Fs closed in and linked up with the four Kinshu team machines, and the group began to move in.

A formation of ZAFT GOUF Igniteds suddenly moved in and opened fire, and the mobile suits were forced to scatter. Two of them fired their beam rifles on the Akatsuki. Instinctively, Cagalli raised the Akatsuki's shield to block the attack, but one shot slipped through.

However, the Akatsuki's most distinguishing feature was its "Yata-no-Kagami" beam-reflective armor, which gave the machine its golden color. A sophisticated defensive technology developed specifically to counter beam weapons, it worked by absorbing and redirecting the energy from enemy beam weapons fire. So that when the single rifle shot hit the Akatsuki's armor, its armor absorbed the shot, then the Akatsuki's computer automatically calculated the appropriate vector and released the energy back down the firing line at the attacking mobile suit, which saw its arm destroyed by, essentially, its own attack. The entire process had taken a fraction of a second.

Cagalli immediately followed up with her own attack, firing not only her beam rifle, but the two powerful "Oowashi" plasma beam cannons, each attack felling one enemy mobile suit.

"Kinshu Team, stay with me! Third Squadron, reinforce the defense line; Fourth Squadron, link up with the Fourth Battalion forces and gather at Takamitsugata. We _will_ push them back!" Cagalli ordered.

Meanwhile, reports were coming in to the ZAFT ships that the Orb forces were starting to rally, and on the monitor, Yzak saw that a new model was apparently responsible for leading the strengthened defense.

"Interesting." He commented. "It seems to be armored against beam rifles and cannons. I wonder, though."  
>Then, he turned to Arthur. "Give me a sitrep."<p>

- "Our forces in coastal area twelve are being pushed back; the Doze team units are falling back with heavy damage, and we've lost the Hawker and Willard Team mobile suits."

- "How are we doing underwater?"

- "Still about the same, but we're starting to see less resistance; it looks like the enemy underwater units aren't as numerous, but they are easily a match for the ASSH."

- "Right. Anything on Jibril?"

- "Still nothing, sir."

Yzak swore under his breath, then ordered the _Acatenango_ to deploy their reserve GOUF Igniteds to coastal area twelve. This battle was going to be every bit as tough as he thought, and he wondered how Athrun, who was probably still somewhere in Orb, either at their government or military headquarters, was taking this.

He opened up a communication to the ship's ready room, where he knew his pilots were waiting.  
>"What is it, Captain?" Shinn was the one who spoke, and Yzak rolled his eyes.<p>

- "We're having some problems with a new model in area twelve." Yzak said. "I need you to launch and do what you can to pin it down. No need for everyone to launch, but I want you to take at least one escort."

- "Roger that." Shinn said, and the screen went dead.

Soon after that, he was in the cockpit of the Destiny, starting the machine up.  
>"Destiny, stand by for immediate take-off. Confirming all systems go. Initiating launch sequence. Catapult online, course clear. Destiny, you are clear for launch."<p>

- "Shinn Asuka. Destiny, launching!"

The Destiny shot forward from the catapult and its wings spread as it shot upwards and then in towards the coastline.  
>Behind him, Shinn saw a second mobile suit launch from the Minerva, and slowed to allow his wingman to catch up. Then the two machines, flying in tight formation, moved in towards the coast.<p>

As soon as he was in range, Shinn opened fire on an Orb Murasame from behind, shooting it down. As the Orb forces turned and began to fire, the Destiny spun gracefully out of the line of fire, avoiding the enemy shots even as he counterattacked, every shot from his rifle finding its target. Two Murasames managed to raise their shields in time to block the attack, and switched to mobile suit mode as they drew beam sabers.

Shinn raised the shield, and the EEQ8S "Grapple Stinger" extensional arrestor shot forward on its line. The razor-sharp claw buried itself in the cockpit of the nearest Murasame, slicing it - and its pilot - in half, even as Shinn raised the Destiny's other hand and ignited its "Solidus Fulgor" beam shield, intercepting the machine's beam saber. He batted the weapon aside, then fired the "Palma Fiocina" beam gun mounted in the palm of the Destiny's hand, piercing the cockpit, before kicking the dead mobile suit away, even as he retracted the Grapple Stinger.

Beside him, the second machine added the fire of its own weapons to the fray as more Murasames closed in, and the enemy unit was decimated. The two machines continued on their course unhindered, swiftly closing on the Akatsuki.

Meanwhile, the Orb military police had total control of the Seiran compound, and both Unato Ema Seiran and Yuna Roma Seiran were in custody.

"Report to Lady Sahaku and Lady Cagalli; then get these two traitors in the van and escort them back to military HQ." The leader of the force said.  
>The formation started to leave, when suddenly the leader was cut down by gunfire as a group of soldiers turned on them, firing at the MPs in an attempt to free the Seirans.<p>

Unato Ema smiled.  
>He may no longer have been an official member of Orb's government, but he still had supporters there and even in the military. Soon, he would be able to get this situation under control, and then he could deal with that little upstart Cagalli.<br>In the ensuing firefight, he and Yuna attempted to flee; however, the fight separated them, and Unato, more concerned with his own life, slipped away.

However the small group of renegade soldiers, despite having initially had the element of surprise, were outgunned by their opponents and were soon overwhelmed.

Once the firefight ended, Yuna was apprehended attempting to leave and was immediately and violently subdued. Of Unato, however, there was no sign.

"Bastard." the leader of the surviving MPs spat. "You and your old man are going to pay for that, sir." he said spitefully, addressing Yuna. "Get him out of here."

The sorely diminished group left the compound, with Yuna being led out of his family's estate in handcuffs and at gunpoint. He was shoved unceremoniously into the back of a military truck, which roared off back towards Military HQ.

**Orb Military HQ**

At Orb's Military HQ, Athrun essentially stood unattended, near the back of the room as he watched the battle. Rondo Mina Sahaku, also present, was keeping an eye on him, but when the battle started she had ordered the MPs guarding him to go with the others for the attack on the Seiran compound.

He wondered why the ZAFT fleet had been so quick to attack, though he guessed that after that moronic broadcast from Yuna it was a logical course of action. He still regretted that he had been unable to find a diplomatic solution to this mess.

Suddenly, two new mobile suits appeared, moving fast from the Minerva in towards the shoreline, apparently headed towards the Akatsuki's position. He saw them appear on the screen at the same time as Colonel Soga reported them to Cagalli.

"Milady, be careful. ZAFT reinforcements are closing in at high speed."

"How many?" Cagalli asked, even as she continued to engage.

"Just two, but they're moving extremely fast." Soga replied.

From the speed alone, Athrun knew one of them had to be the Destiny, a theory that was confirmed an instant later when a long-range video capture of the attacking mobile suits appeared on the screen. But his jaw dropped when he saw the second one, the machine flying on the Destiny's wing: _His own machine, the ZGMF-YX29R Knight Saviour Gundam._

_'But that's...the Saviour! But who the hell's piloting it?'_ He wondered.

Suddenly, Athrun was afraid. He knew Cagalli was a pretty good pilot, but Shinn's forte - just like Athrun himself - was high-speed, close-range combat. And he knew that Shinn was at least as good a pilot as he himself was, and that moreover the Destiny was built especially to fight fast and up close, where Cagalli was more vulnerable.

And that was without factoring in the Knight Saviour.

"Be careful, Cagalli." He muttered.

Cagalli, upon hearing Colonel Soga's report, turned to face the two incoming mobile suits.

"It's that one." She said, recognizing the mobile suit that had led the charge at Heaven's Base from the footage she'd seen of the attack. She did the briefest double-take when she saw the Saviour, which she would've guessed to have been Athrun's machine - when she knew that Athrun was at Orb Military HQ.

But she raised her rifle, targeted the Destiny, and fired.

Shinn saw the attack coming, and he immediately ignited his single "Validus Fulgor" beam shield, blocking it. He saw the enemy new model, and he saw the Murasames behind it.

He opened a link to the Knight Saviour.

"Keep those Murasames busy! I'll deal with the new model." He said, and he heard the positive reply. Then the two mobile suits split up, as Shinn focused on the gold new model, while the Saviour moved to intercept the three yellow Murasames coming in behind it.

"I guess we have to handle that red one." Andrew Waltfeld, from the lead Murasame, commented. "All right then, let's go."

- "Roger that." Came the reply from Kisaka, then Juri.

The three Murasame split up, moving jointly to surround the rapidly-approaching Saviour, then fired their rifles.  
>The Saviour immediately went evasive, avoiding the attacks easily, or else blocking with its own beam shields. The counterattack was immediate, but the Murasames likewise avoided the attack.<p>

The battle continued, the three Murasame engaging the Saviour, but essentially it was a stalemate; the Murasames were far too slow to be able to close in to engage the Saviour directly, nor were any of their pilots foolish enough to seek a one-on-one engagement against a visibly superior foe; and it was far too agile for them to be able to get a decisive attack advantage from long range. However, each of the three had cover from at least one of their teammates, so the Saviour could not close in either, and the Murasame had sufficient maneuverability to evade or block its ranged attacks.

Shinn meanwhile accelerated and engaged the Akatsuki, which fired its two beam cannons immediately at the Destiny. Shinn dodged the attack easily, then decided to go for a decisive counter, arming the Destiny's two "Megálos Kerberos" high-energy long-range beam cannons. He targeted the Akatsuki, and the instant he had lock on the target he opened fire with both weapons.

Countering the twin attack pushed the limit of the "Yata-no-Kagami" armor's capabilities, but the two beams were intercepted and, much to Shinn's surprise, his own attack was reflected right back at him. He activated the Voilure Lumière, avoiding the two beams by millimeters.

"So it reflects beam cannons, huh?" He snarled. "Well, then, let's see about that!"  
>He stowed the two beam cannons as well as his beam rifle, and drew both of the Destiny's "Moralltach" heavy anti-ship sabers.<p>

The sheer size of the two blades startled Cagalli, as did the unbelievable speed at which the Destiny suddenly closed in.

A pair of Murasames from the defense forces suddenly moved in, closing in in flight mode and firing their beam rifles and dorsal beam cannons at the Destiny, which easily avoided the attack of the lead Murasame before slicing it in half horizontally from front to back with one of the two blades, then bisected the second one vertically.

Cagalli drew and activated the Akatsuki's twin beam sabers, then charged in towards the Destiny, which met its attack head on. He parried the saber strike with one of his two blades.

"So you're the leader, huh?" Shinn sneered, "Though, you don't have much skill."  
>As he spoke, he pushed slightly back, then swept in with the second blade.<p>

Cagalli saw the attack coming and broke off, moving backwards, but the attack still severed the heavy shield mounted to the Akatsuki's arm and carved a deep gouge in the limb.

"Damn it." She swore under her breath, as much at herself as her enemy.

She realized suddenly that she may have bitten off more than she could chew with this one, as the Destiny closed in again. She separated the twin beam saber into two separate sabers, holding one in each hand to hopefully try and hold off the enemy unit.

Shinn saw the move, and struck with both blades simultaneously. The Akatsuki parried the attack, which he had guessed it would. Shifting slightly, he saw that the angle was wrong and he could not use the Gryphon II leg blades.

In spite of this, he made his move, and the Destiny batted aside both beam sabers using the larger Moralltach blades and delivered a vicious kick that slammed into the Akatsuki's waist, damaging the armor and throwing it off-balance. Then he struck again.

Cagalli attempted to parry, but the attack severed the Akatsuki's arm, just above the elbow.

"LADY CAGALLI!" Juri yelled, and she broke formation, moving in to attempt to cover the Akatsuki.

- "Juri, NO!" Kisaka yelled, but it was too late.

The Saviour took advantage of the opening and accelerated, breaking free of the encirclement.  
>Suddenly, the advantage was now firmly with the enemy, as the much faster Saviour was in a position to be able to simultaneously engage both Waltfeld's and Kisaka's Murasames.<br>It did so immediately, deploying the two powerful "Amfortas Kai" beam cannons as well as the "Hyper Fortis" cannons and targeting each machine, then firing all four weapons. The two Murasames were forced to scatter to avoid the attack.

"Damn." Waltfeld swore. "We had him on the ropes, and now we're the ones who're in trouble."

At that moment, he detected a large formation of mobile suits closing in, and let out a sigh of relief as a full squadron of Murasames moved in and attacked both the Saviour and the Destiny, forcing them to break off their attacks.

Then he saw the ship moving in: The _Takemikazuchi_.

- "Colonel Todaka!" Waltfeld broadcast to the ships. "Thanks for the support."

- "Don't mention it, Colonel Waltfeld." Todaka replied.

By common consent, Kisaka and Waltfeld linked up with Juri and the Akatsuki before the Saviour could break free and potentially attack them, then the four mobile suits retreated.

Shinn too, recognized the carrier, and he also saw the Akatsuki retreating towards Orb's military headquarters. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the three Murasame that had been attacking the Saviour link up with it and all of them fall back.  
>He ignored them, turning his attention instead on the Murasames attacking them now, as both machines blocked the attacks with their beam shields. Stowing the Moralltach, Shinn drew his beam rifle, then fired into the approaching formation.<p>

The Murasames scattered, avoiding his attack.  
>At that moment, his sensors detected something, and he saw what looked like a ZAFT-type orbital drop pod, falling towards them at high speed.<p>

- "Orbital reinforcements? But where'd they come from? and why only one?" He wondered, and he moved in towards where he estimated the new mobile suits would land.

The pod split apart, disgorging three YMF-3000 DOM Troopers, which Shinn saw were in distinctive two-tone violet colors instead of the standard green.  
>Then, to his surprise, the three DOM Troopers moved out and opened fire on ZAFT forces.<p>

- "What the hell?" He wondered, suddenly angry at this development. "Those bastards..."

But he could not pursue them, not with a sizable formation of Murasames currently attacking him. So he turned his attention back to them, barely managing to parry an attack from one of them, then moved in to retaliate.

In the cockpit of the lead DOM Trooper, Hilda Harken contacted her two teammates - Mars Simeon and Herbert Von Reinhardt.

All three of them were ZAFT deserters, who had fought in many of the major battles of the first War, and who had opposed Patrick Zala as members of the Clyne Faction. And now, they opposed ZAFT and Durendal once again in memory of Lacus Clyne, murdered even as her father had been. They had followed him, then her, and now continued to fight in her memory.

"All right, boys." Hilda said. "You know what to do."

- "Right." Mars answered.

- "Ready when you are!" Herbert supplied, as the other two fell into formation exactly behind her, then she drew her beam saber and ignited her beam shield. Then she fired a shot from the torso-mounted scattering beam gun, then all three started moving at exactly the same speed - a coordinated attack pattern they called "Jet Stream attack", which they had initially used during the Bloody Valentine War when piloting GINNs, then later GuAIZs.

The concept of the attack is simple; any enemy evading one attack was automatically in line for two additional attacks, making it almost impossible to evade sucessfully. And so it proved, as protected by Hilda's beam shield, the three DOMs, moving as one, tore through enemy forces one after the other.

On the _Minerva_'s bridge, Yzak saw what happened, and he swore angrily.

"Someone wanna tell me who the fuck that is tearing apart our forces with next-generation ZAFT mobile suits?" Nobody had a clue, and so nobody replied.

"Arthur!" Yzak snapped. "Take the conn! Abby, I assume my DOM Trooper is ready?"

- "Y...Yes, sir!" She replied.

- "Good. Tell Lunamaria that she's to take off immediately. I am taking the rest of our DOM Troopers as well."

- "Right." Abby replied, and immediately relayed the orders to the pilots standing by.

Within minutes, the Blast Impulse was out the catapult and closing in. Yzak's blue DOM Trooper followed, then two others, in standard green and equipped with Blaze Wizard Packs.

Yzak was fuming. As far as he knew, only maybe a dozen DOM Troopers had been produced so far; and somehow, three of them had fallen into enemy hands. Because he _knew_, deep down, where those three had to have come from; a covert drop from the _Eternal_.

"Bastards." He mumbled again. He opened up a line to all four of the other mobile suits. Lunamaria saw with some surprise that he hadn't even bothered to put on a normal suit, but said nothing.

"All right, here's the situation; Somehow, the enemy has gotten a hold of three DOM Troopers, and they're tearing apart our ground forces. We are going to engage those three sonsabitches and at least prevent them from doing any more damage. Ideally, we just take them out. Clear?"

- "Yes, sir!" Lunamaria replied, and the other two did the same.

The four mobile suits then moved in, rapidly closing in on the targets.

At Orb's Military Defense Headquarters, Athrun had also seen the three DOM Troopers, and made the same deduction as Yzak, which brought a wry smile to his face as he considered the fact that ZAFT's biggest current problem stemmed from ZAFT mobile suits. Again.

Then he saw the four mobile suits launch from the Minerva - three DOM Troopers, one of them Yzak's. And the Blast Impulse, which he knew was Lunamaria's machine.  
>Process of elimination then dictated who the pilot of the Saviour had to be, and Athrun shook his head. Still smiling.<p>

At that moment, a group of MPs entered the room, leading at gunpoint a handcuffed Yuna Roma Seiran, who glared askance at Athrun as he entered. Athrun saw that Yuna had apparently been beaten rather badly by the MPs, and wondered what happened.

He also wondered why so few of them, and why several of them were sporting gunshot wounds.

"Report." Rondo Mina Sahaku ordered.

- "Unato Ema Seiran escaped, ma'am." the leader of the battered group reported. "a group of renegade soldiers opened fire on my men as we were preparing to escort the prisoners back here, and they got loose in the confusion. We recaptured Yuna Roma Seiran, but the old man got away."

- "Old man?" Yuna ejaculated, "Show some respect, you..." He was suddenly silenced as one of the soldiers slammed a fist into his solar plexus, and he fell to the floor. Superbly disdainful, Mina glared down at him as he lay there.

- "Respect?" She said haughtily. "Traitors don't deserve respect, Seiran."

At that moment, the Akatsuki landed outside, and Cagalli entered just as Yuna was dragging himself to a standing position - a rather remarkable feat, as his arms were bound behind him by handcuffs.

"Cagalli." Athrun said as he saw her enter, and Colonel Soga turned and saluted her.

- "Cagalli! It's awful...this is too much - the way I've been treated."

- "SHUT UP." She barked, and Yuna shrank back as if she'd threatened him. She turned to Colonel Soga and nodded.

- "Lady Cagalli." He said. "As ordered, Yuna Roma Seiran has been arrested; unfortunately, Unato Ema was able to evade us, and we still have not found Lord Jibril."

- "I see." She said, and she turned and glared at Yuna.

- "Spit it out, Yuna." She barked at him. "Where is Jibril? And don't lie to me!"

- "I...I don't know!" He said. "Let me...Let me explain!"

- "What's to explain?" She retorted angrily. "I know you, your father, and his ilk differed in their opinion; But until recently, I had thought that in spite of this, our desire to protect this nation was the same. But not only you violated my direct orders when you sent our fleet out a few months ago to interfere in battles between the PLANTs - who at that point were not an enemy of Orb - and caused the loss of several ships and hundreds of our forces. But now, you sheltered an international criminal, an enemy of our ally, the Eurasian Federation, as well as of the PLANTs. This battle is YOUR fault! And now you're going to continue to shelter him?"

- "I...I..." Yuna Roma Seiran stammered

- "Tell me where he is, Yuna!" Cagalli ordered, her voice rising.

- "I don't know! Yes, he was at our place, but now I don't know where he is." He said. He seemed to regain some confidence then, and he looked down at her as he continued. "And I don't know how you can accuse me! Everything I did, I did for the sake of Orb!"

At that, Cagalli lost her temper. She drew a service pistol from its holster on her belt, and she shot Yuna Roma Seiran cleanly through the head.

The single gunshot rang throughout the room like a clap of thunder, and the corpse of Yuna Roma Seiran slid to the ground.  
>The gun fell with a loud clatter. Athrun stepped forward, and he saw that Cagalli's hands were shaking.<p>

"I shouldn't have done that." She said. "I...I don't know what came over me, I just..."

Athrun took her in his arms, and she simply stayed there, her hands still shaking.  
>- "It's all right." he said. "Don't..."<p>

- "No, it's not!" she protested, "How are we supposed to...to find Jibril now? And I...I..."

- "As to Jibril, do not worry, Milady." Rondo Mina Sahaku said kindly, and Cagalli looked at her with some surprise. "We will find him - and Unato Ema Seiran, as well. But as for what happened here; Yuna Roma Seiran was a traitor. Any court of law would have condemned him to die for his crimes. And I, for one, believe that you did the right thing, as does everyone in this room."

Colonel Soga nodded. Several people applauded.

- "Thank you." Cagalli said haltingly. She still felt bad about what she had done, but as Mina ordered the corpse removed, she knew that the best way to atone for it was to find Unato, find Jibril, and contact the ZAFT fleet to try to negotiate a ceasefire.

- "Athrun, do you think you can work with Colonel Soga to attempt to contact the ZAFT fleet?" She asked him.

- "Of course." Athrun said. "We'll contact the _Minerva_, to see if we can get them to stand down."

- "Thank you." Cagalli said. "Mina, I need you to find Unato, and find Jibril, whatever it takes."

- "As you command, milady." Mina nodded, and then the group set to work attempting to bring the battle to an end.

Meanwhile, Hilda Harken continued to lead her two teammates against the invading ZAFT forces, preventing them from moving in, and even forcing them back. Suddenly, alarms sounded in their cockpits, and all three DOMs pivoted to face the incoming attack and activated their beam shields. And not a moment too soon, as a massive volley of cannonfire slammed into the three shields.

"Oh, damn it." Hilda swore as she saw four enemy machines closing in, and she knew that things had just gotten a lot harder: three of them were DOM Troopers, like their own machines. And the fourth was the Blast Impulse Gundam, which while it lacked the DOM Trooper's beam shield, still had it beat in terms of firepower as well as at least matching its mobility.

Worse still, while all three of their own units were in base configurations only, as was the blue lead DOM...the other two equipped Blaze Wizard Packs. But that two-tone blue DOM Trooper, in her judgement, was the worst news of all. Because she knew those colors, she knew who that pilot had to be.

- "Guess it's time to get serious, huh?" Simon commented.

- "You bet." Herbert supplanted. "But don't get cocky - I recognize the colors of that lead machine."

- "It's Yzak Joule." Hilda commented grimly. They were outnumbered, outgunned, and facing quite possibly the single most skilled pilot in ZAFT, barring Athrun Zala himself. "We're in deep shit, boys."

The two rear DOM Troopers in Yzak's team opened fire, unleashing a volley from their Blaze Wizards, and Hilda and her team scattered, evading the attack and countering with their own fire, which was blocked or evaded.

- "Let's go!" Hilda ordered, and the two other DOM Troopers fell into formation once again for their Jet Stream attack.

Yzak guessed what was coming - he'd seen the footage of the attack when the enemy DOMs had first used that formation.

- "Scatter!" He ordered his machines. Beam shields engaged, the three DOM Troopers fell back, with two of them sheltering the Impulse, as Yzak broke off and stowed his Gigaplex launcher. Then he drew his favorite weapon, the "Falx" beam axe; an optional weapon carried over from his old ZAKU Warrior, the long-shafted weapon had a greater reach even than the beam saber of the DOM Trooper.

The three machines slipped past unopposed, and before they could react, Yzak struck, sliding forward just as the third machine passed him by, barely outside its reach and, slipping inside its defenses, neatly severing its leg with the axe.  
>The DOM collapsed, and its pilot swore angrily.<p>

- "HERBERT!" Hilda yelled, and the two DOM Troopers immediately about-faced and moved to cover their fallen comrade, just as the Blast Impulse opened fire from behind them both with a volley of missiles, supplemented by fire from its railguns and beam rifle. Both DOM Troopers ignited their beam shields, blocking the attack, even as the three enemy DOM Troopers moved around them, encircling the group. She turned her machine around to keep an eye on Yzak's machine and one of the other two, while Mars covered the Impulse and the third DOM.

But she knew that the best they could hope to do was to hold off the enemy at this point. They were pinned down.

At that moment, a GOUF Ignited approached from above, and opened fire on the DOMs with its arm-mounted "Draupnir" beam machinegun, and Mars Simeon immediately retaliated, firing the Gigaplex's 60mm beam rifle from behind cover provided by Hilda's beam shield.

The stricken GOUF Ignited fell.

Little did any of them know that not far away, Unato Ema Seiran, guarded by soldiers still loyal to him, was in his car and on his way to a spaceport where his private shuttle waited, with Jibril onboard.

Unato Ema Seiran regretted having to leave his son Yuna to his own devices, but hoped that once he'd gotten out of here, he could try to do something about that, unaware that his son was dead.

He was also unaware that his own life was about to end, as the falling GOUF Ignited crashed on top of the car, crushing it under its weight, then exploded.  
>Unato Ema Seiran and the car's driver, as well as the soldiers in the car, were killed instantly.<p>

**Orb Military HQ.**

Cagalli paced back and forth at the back of the room, increasingly agitated. So far, their attempts at contacting the ZAFT fleet had been unsuccessful, nor had they been able to locate Jibril.

"_Hayamatsumi_ has been destroyed, and the _Toyomatsumi_ is immobilized." one officer reported. "The Sixth Mobile Corps is en route to reinforce the Izanagi shoreline. The battle line is holding at Aramatsubara, but ZAFT forces are moving in again."

- "What about Jibril?" Mina asked.

- "Sections three, six, and nine are reporting no sign of him at this time." replied another officer. "Nothing in one, two and four, either. five, seven and eight are still moving in."

- "Wait!" Athrun suddenly spoke up. "Do the Seirans own a shuttle?"

- "They do." Cagalli said slowly. "Just like the Athha and Sahaku families." Neither of them voiced the fact that the Athha shuttle had been damaged and abandoned in orbit nearly a year earlier - both knew it.  
>She suddenly realized why Athrun was asking, and mentally berated herself for not thinking of it herself, even as she heard him ask the question that occurred to her.<p>

- "What section are those shuttles stored in?" he asked. "Where are their hangars?"

- "In different areas." Mina answered. "The Athha shuttle, for instance, was always stored at Kaguya. The Seiran shuttle hangar is in section three, not far from their compound."

- "Then the soldier who reported from there was lying." Cagalli said, clenching her fists. "That's where Jibril is, and probably where Unato's headed as well. Send every available unit there immediately! We have to stop them before they take off."

- "Ma'am!" Colonel Soga suddenly said. "We have contact with the _Minerva_!"

"Tell them we've determined Jibril's probable location, and send them the coordinates."

Athrun immediately relayed the message to Arthur, who communicated it to Yzak.

- "They found him!" Yzak jubilated. "About fucking time! Lunamaria, we're closest - go NOW! If that shuttle takes off, shoot the fucking thing down!" He ordered, then opened up a link to Shinn. "Lover boy! You and your girlfriend haul your asses over here and back up Lunamaria!"

- "Right." Shinn replied flatly, though his voice shook with trepidation. He and Stella had been engaged against the _Takemikazuchi'_s Murasames, nearly half of which had been destroyed by either him or the Saviour, but he immediately broke off combat, as did she.

The Saviour shifted to flight mode, where its speed was highest, and Shinn pushed the Voilure Lumière to maximum output. The two machines crossed at high speed towards the coordinates they'd been transmitted.

Meanwhile, Jibril was seated in the Seiran shuttle, which was ready to take off. All that was left was for the Seirans themselves to arrive.

- "What's going on?" One of the soldiers in the shuttle asked his colleague. "Lord Unato and Lord Yuna are awfully late."

- "They sure are." Assented the other. "I wonder where they are."

Jibril stood and approached them.  
>- "That's enough! We cannot wait any longer: launch the shuttle, now." he demanded.<p>

- "But sir..." One of them protested.

- "I'm the important one here, not the Seirans. Nothing must stop me from getting to the moon! Surely you can all comprehend that."

- "R...Right." The soldier replied, and minutes later, the shuttle and its lone passenger took off.

The launch was detected instantly, and the closest mobile suit - the Blast Impulse - immediately targeted the shuttle. Her orders were simple: shoot it down.

No matter what, that shuttle could not be allowed to escape to space.

She locked on, but before she could fire, alarms rang in her cockpit as a formation of Astray Flight Types moved in and opened fire on the Impulse.  
>Lunamaria was forced to break off to evade the attack.<p>

Then, with a scream of rage, Shinn, who had seen the attack, drew one of the Destiny's two "Shining Edge" beam sabers and skewered the nearest Astray, impaling its cockpit, then drawing the blade upwards, bisecting it from hip to neck. When another moved in, he evaded it, accelerating upwards even as the Saviour, behind him, attacked. Exponentially faster than an Astray, the Saviour deployed its wings and activated the two "Gryphon" wing beam blades, then shot forward, bisecting one Astray before she switched to mobile suit mode, instantly drawing the beam rifle, and opened fire on the remaining machines.

Lunamaria, meanwhile, fired from below and, caught in the crossfire, the enemy formation was obliterated.

Immediately, she deployed the Blast Impulse's "Kerberos" beam cannons and the beam rifle, and at attempted to draw a bead on the rapidly-rising shuttle, but it was moving too fast to get a firm lock-on. She fired anyway, and narrowly missed it. She adjusted her aim in a second, even as above Shinn deployed the Destiny's "Megálos Kerberos" beam cannons and did the same. But by then it was too late - the shuttle had escaped beyond the range of their weapons.

"DAMN IT!" Shinn swore angrily, slamming his fist into the console.

In the cockpit of his own machine, Yzak was no less angry. He immediately sent a broadcast to the Minerva, which relayed his orders to all ships and mobile suits in the ZAFT fleet.

- "This is Commander Yzak Joule of the Minerva to all units. Cease combat operations and fall back beyond Orb territorial waters immediately." He cut the link.  
>"FUCK IT!" He swore at the top of his lungs, enraged at their failure, and dreading the possible consequences.<p>

Jibril had escaped again, this time back into space. Who knew what he had planned now? Whatever it was, Yzak knew it would not be good.

Several hours later, the ZAFT forces had fallen back; the wounded were still being evacuated back to their ships, but the bulk of the fleet and its mobile suits had retreated beyond Orb territorial waters, including the _Minerva_.

One DOM Trooper stood on the runway of Orb's space port. Next to it, the Blast Impulse, Destiny, and Knight Saviour, as well as one Core Splendor.

Athrun Zala, Yzak Joule, Shinn Asuka, Lunamaria Hawke, and Stella Loussier stood in front of the mobile suits. Athrun had changed out of his civilian clothing, and once again wore his red-and-black flight suit, helmet in hand; Except for Yzak, all of the others wore flight suits as well, but had left their helmets in their cockpits.

Across from them, Cagalli Yula Athha, Rondo Mina Sahaku, and Colonel Fumihiko Todaka.

"I'm sorry we had to meet again under such circumstances, Commander Joule." Cagalli said sincerely. "I appreciate your sending Athrun to us to try to end this peacefully."

- "Pity it doesn't seem to've worked." Yzak said flatly. "Truth is, it was his idea, and Chairman Durendal approved it."

- "Is that so?" Cagalli asked. "I'm not surprised. He's always been like that." Yzak had to smile at that one.

- "That he has." He said, and Athrun rolled his eyes, which prompted both of them to laugh.

- "I want you to know, Commander," Cagalli said once the laughter subsided, "that I am sorry things have turned out this way. Additionally, if you ever need any assistance in hunting down Jibril, you have but to ask, and Orb will be there to assist you."

- "Thank you." Yzak said, somewhat surprised at the statement - a surprise reflected in the faces of Athrun and Shinn.

- "Commander Joule," Mina cut in, "There is one other thing you may find useful to have."

She stepped forward, and handed to Yzak a sealed envelope. "It does not have any direct bearing on our current situation, but I believe you should find the information contained herein interesting."

- "Thank you." Yzak said, his brow furrowed at the cryptic statement. He put it out of his mind, for now.

Then, Colonel Todaka stepped forward. But he was not looking at Yzak, nor even at Athrun.  
>He was looking at Shinn.<p>

"It's been a long time, Shinn." He said warmly. Shinn nodded, unable to respond. "Well, not really all that long, actually - if you include the Med."

Shinn smiled, almost sheepishly - he had come within seconds of killing the man in the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Crete - and both knew it. But Shinn also knew that Fumihiko Todaka did not hold that against him.

- "It looks like our meeting had to be on a battlefield again." Shinn said wryly, echoing something Colonel Todaka himself had said previously.

- "Seems to be a thing about us soldiers, unfortunately." Todaka replied. "But next time, hopefully we'll be on the same side of the battlefield - or not on one at all."

- "I'd like that." Shinn said. Then, Todaka glanced over at a very pretty young girl, blonde, who was looking at Shinn.

- "Is she..." he started to ask, and Shinn nodded.

- "Her name is Stella." He said. "Stella Loussier. Next to her is Lunamaria Hawke, who's another very good friend of mine." Then, Shinn turned towards the others. "Colonel Todaka is the man who took me in after my family...after my family died. He helped me get to the PLANTs."

- "It's a pleasure meeting you all." Todaka said, and they all replied in kind.

Then he turned to Shinn. "You have some good friends, Shinn. I'm happy for you - you hold onto them, you hear?"

- "Yes, sir." he said.

- "I'm proud of you, kid." He said, then snapped a sharp salute. Shinn returned the gesture, then turned away to hide the tears he felt starting to flow. He wiped his eyes on his sleeve, and the group turned to leave.

Athrun alone lingered for a moment.

"I hate that you have to go so soon." Cagalli said.

- "So do I." Athrun said. "But we each have our parts to play; and beside, it's not the end. But the path you follow and mine are still the same - we'll see each other again."

Then he too turned back, headed towards the Core Splendor.  
>Soon afterwards, the single aircraft and four mobile suits were on their way back to their ship, and within another hour, as the sun set, the ZAFT fleet was gone.<p> 


	30. Phase 30: Requiem for Tragedy

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **Merry Christmas, everyone - or whatever you may celebrate. Here's a present for y'all to mark the Holiday Season: A New Chapter! Please read and review!

Anyway, so this chapter parallels/replaces Episodes 43-44, concluding the events on Earth as the action returns to space. As usual, a lot of stuff changed, but the basic sequence of events remains similar.

* * *

><p><strong>PHASE 30: Requiem for Tragedy<strong>

Yzak Joule, leader of the Joule Team, captain of the state-of-the-art transatmospheric assault carrier LHM-BB01 _Minerva_, was frowning, which tended to make people nervous. Yzak, the son of a prominent member of the PLANT Supreme Council, was known for being three things: An incredibly skilled pilot; a brilliant tactician and commander; and quite possibly the most volatile-tempered officer in ZAFT - with perhaps one exception.

At the moment, his frustration had its roots in several things: One was the same report that had been exercising the suspicious mind of the young commander for several months; another was the report he was now perusing, which he had acquired much more recently from Rondo Mina Sahaku. And third, the equally recent failure to capture their target: The leader of Blue Cosmos, Logos member, and international terrorist Teivel "Lord" Jibril.

At the moment, however, he was alone in his quarters, on a secure communications link to Carpentaria, speaking with Gilbert Durendal, the Chairman of the PLANT Supreme Council.

"So, Jibril was on that shuttle, then?" Durendal asked.

- "He was." Yzak answered. "Unato Ema Seiran was killed in collateral damage during the battle, and Yuna Roma Seiran executed. But we have corroboration from Orb military police through Rondo Mina Sahaku; Jibril boarded that shuttle alone with a crew of approximately four Orb officers, acting under the orders of Unato Ema Seiran."

- "In either case, you failed to capture him, and you lost to Orb."

- "Negative." Yzak replied flatly. "We did not lose to Orb. Under my authority as both commander of this fleet and an operative of FAITH, I made the decision that in light of the flight of Jibril from Orb, it was unnecessary to continue what was becoming a pointless battle of attrition."

Durendal looked slightly taken aback at the abrupt reply, and Yzak continued. "If it had come down to it, we could have obliterated them. But there was no need to do so, and if we had, it would have created difficulties vis-à-vis the Eurasian Federation as well."

After a tense few seconds, Durendal nodded.

- "I see." he said slowly. "Thank you, Commander Joule. I believe that you made the correct decision."

- "Thank you, sir." Yzak said.

- "I am returning to space; we'll check into that shuttle from there." the Chairman continued. "As for Orb, well perhaps we should try to find another way of negotiating with them."

- "I think that would probably be best; Representative Athha at least seems willing to assist us." Yzak replied.

- "Is that so?" Durendal replied. "Very well, then. Return to Carpentaria and stand by, for now."

Yzak acknowledged the order, and the line went dead. He leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes, and sighed.

_'Just what in the hell is going on, here?'_ he wondered. Then he stood up, shaking his head, and left, returning to the bridge.

The ZAFT fleet was already on its way to Carpentaria. The _Minerva_'s hangar was a flurry of activity, as damaged mobile suits were repaired, and those few that were intact were resupplied.

They had lost five Lesseps-class ships, eight Vosgolov-class submarines, and close to a hundred mobile suits in the battle. Many ships had been damaged; only the _Minerva_ and its mobile suits had escaped relatively unscathed.

The fact that so much had been sacrificed for nothing was the most frustrating part for Yzak, as it was for his perhaps equally volatile-tempered subordinate, Shinn Asuka.

At that moment, Shinn stood as was his wont on the _Minerva_' s starboard observation deck. He wore his uniform, the collar unbuttoned as usual, the silver-and-gold FAITH brooch pinned to the lapel, and a sour expression on his face.

The door opened with a hiss, and Athrun stepped out, walking over to the railing and standing next to him.

"What is it?" Shinn said without looking at him.

- "You tell me." Athrun replied. "You look like you've got something on your mind."

- "And you don't?" Shinn asked shortly. Then, he said "We could've used your help out there."

The statement surprised Athrun somewhat, as he had always seen that Shinn had something of a proud streak. But then again, he had grown a lot in the past months.

- "I know." He said. "From what I could tell, you were doing pretty well on your own; well, you and Stella." After a few moments, he added. "I'm gonna want that machine back, though."

Shinn laughed at the comment.

- "Sorry we didn't ask before borrowing it." He said mock-seriously. "But you'd kinda taken the cockpit of her machine."

There were a few moments' silence, then Shinn looked at him. "Why did you do it? Did you really think you could..."

Athrun nodded.  
>"I did." He said. "Or at least, I hoped. And we almost succeeded, too. Cagalli tried her best, but the Seirans still had friends in the Council."<p>

- "Bastards." Shinn said. "Well, at least they're dead now. I just wish we could've nailed Jibril."

- "Well, we'll get him next time." Athrun said, one hand on the younger man's shoulder.

But he did not voice the concern that both men shared, that from space, there was a good possibility that Jibril may attempt to strike at the PLANTs, a concern shared by many others, including the Supreme Council.

And with good reason.

**Lunar surface - Daedalus Crater**  
><strong>Atlantic Federation lunar base<strong>

Teivel Jibril, leader of Blue Cosmos and sole remaining member of Logos, stood in the control room of the Daedalus Lunar Base - the second-largest base held by the Atlantic Federation on the moon - with an expression of great smugness.

With him, Commander O'Donnell, as well as the base commander, a veteran member of the Alliance military named Erik Shaw.

"So, you really intend to go through with this, Lord Jibril?" Admiral Shaw asked.

- "Of course." Jibril replied smugly. "That's the reason why I made the trip all the way out here."

- "I'm very glad to hear that." Shaw said. "It means that our efforts all the way our here are appreciated."

- "Obviously, they are." Jibril said.

- "My only concern, I suppose, would be the enemy forces at Theophilus." Shaw added as he looked across the room. Jibril scoffed.

- "A minor nuisance." He said haughtily. "This base alone has enough power to handle Theophilus, and Arzachel is more than three times its size; we can exterminate them at any time. But now, we have more important things to worry about."

- "Gounod should reach its destination in twenty minutes. Fauré should be in position in five minutes, and Czerny, Fourier, Duruflé and Britten are already in place." Shaw added, glancing over at the gigantic screen at the front of the room. Then, he addressed the personnel at the controls in front of them. "How are our preparations here?"

- "Requiem generators are operating at 85%, sir." one of them reported. "23 through 55 have already reached critical level, and the power flow is stable."

Another one then spoke up.  
>- "Reserve cooling systems are active, and critical deviation of reflection mirrors is within standard parameters."<p>

Jibril smiled smugly again. The Orbital All-Aspect Tactical Cannon, code-named "Requiem", was the greatest weapons system in history, and it was the weapon that would allow them to wipe out the accursed Coordinators once and for all.

Admiral Shaw also smiled.

- "There are too many soft politicians out there blathering about how weapons such as this are necessary, but when the time comes are too cowardly to actually use them." He said.

- "Don't worry," Jibril said, an evil smile on his face, "I'm no coward like Copeland, nor a fool like Durendal or that traitor Baum. I will pull the trigger, and when I do, this war will end. Once and for all."

"Message from the Gounod Defense fleet, sir!" came a sudden report. "ZAFT forces are approaching the Relay Station!"

Onboard the Hahnenfuss Team's flagship, the _Voltaire_, Shiho Hahnenfuss and Dearka Elsman were on standby in their mobile suits - a ZGMF-2000 GOUF Ignited and ZGMF-1000 Blaze ZAKU Warrior, respectively.

Both the PLANTs and Gagarin-I had detected unusual movement at several points, the nearest of which was this abandoned colony, an old O'Neill I-3 closed-type, which was moving slowly towards the PLANTs.

The two ships had been dispatched to investigate, alongside with a single Nazca and an old Laurasia-class belonging to the Channis Team. And when they had arrived, they had found a massive Atlantic Federation fleet guarding it.

"There sure are a lot of them." Dearka commented. "But why in this place?"

"Who knows?" Shiho replied, "But I think it's safe to assume they're not here to make friends. Let's go!"

"Right."

The two ships launched their machines, and behind them the Channis Team did likewise - a total of twenty-four mobile suits, against possibly three or four times that number of enemy machines: a mix of Daggers, a handful of Windams, and the new models from Heaven's Base.

The Daggers and Windams were mostly in base-configuration or else equipped with heavy-bombardment Doppelhorn Strikers, while the Joule Team consisted almost entirely of ZAKU Warriors, two thirds of which were equipped with Blaze Wizards, while the rest equipped Gunner Wizards and provided fire support from the rear. The Channis Team, meanwhile, had mostly GuAIZ-Rs and GuAIZ, with a handful of ZAKU Warriors and one GOUF Ignited as well.

The Alliance mobile suits were no match, and so Shiho drew her "Carnwennan" beam sword in one hand, her beam rifle in the other, and attacked, weaving through enemy lines and literally carving through the enemy mobile suits, while Dearka, armed with the Blaze ZAKU's high-capacity missile launchers and his own rifle, engaged them from long-range.

One of the mobile armors attacked, and deployed its positron reflector when Shiho fired at it. Without flinching, she stowed the rifle and deployed one of her two "Slayer Whip" heat rods, which cut through the field as if it wasn't there and sliced the mobile armor in half.

Suddenly, she saw thrusters fire on the colony, and it started to slow down.

"They're stopping it out here? But why?" Shiho wondered, then shook her head.

"All Hahnenfuss Team units, form up on me and move around to the colony's engine block! We've gotta stop that thing!" She ordered. "_Voltaire, Rousseau_, open fire on the colony!"

With the Channis Team running interference against the enemy mobile weapons and ships, the two Nazca-class vessels peeled off and immediately opened fire on the colony, while Shiho and Dearka led their mobile suits to target the thruster blocks that ringed the colony from each side.

At Daedalus, meanwhile, Jibril watched anxiously as the colony slowed and stopped.

"Order the escort fleet to move out of the line of fire!" Shaw ordered. "What's the status?"

- "All deflection relay stations, attitude stable, fields active." came the report. "All Requiem generators operational at 100%; 480 seconds to criticality."

- "Good." Shaw said, and turned to Jibril. "Well, what is to be our first target?"

- "Aprilius, of course." Jibril replied, still smiling his evil smile. "Obviously, this is not a warning shot."

- "Of course not." Shaw acquiesced. Then he gave the order. "Target the PLANTs' capital, Aprilius."

- "Roger, inputting target Aprilius. All generators are at critical. Disengaging final safety locks, ready to fire." Came the report. "Commencing countdown - T minus 35 to firing."

So intent on their preparations were Shaw and Jibril that they failed to notice one minor anomaly on their display, as the countdown continued and the trigger was raised off the console.

Jibril took hold of it.

"And now, Durendal," he said as he did so, "I shall play...a requiem, for you and all your kind!"

He pulled the trigger, and the gigantic cannon fired.

Above the barrel floated the first of five converted O'Neill I-3 colonies, each fitted with a Geschmeidig Panzer energy deflection system. As the massive beam of energy surged into the cylinder, it bent, then through the next one. As it approached Gounod, Shiho saw it coming.

"ALL FORCES, EVASIVE MANEUVERS!" She ordered, and the four ships and all their mobile suits scattered, evading the shot.

- "What the hell is this?"

- "The beam is...bending." Dearka said. "It's just like the Forbidden!"  
>He recognized the effect of the Geschmeidig Panzer, having faced the first machine to have fielded such technology, the GAT-X252 Forbidden Gundam.<br>"What's its target?" He wondered.

- "It's headed for the PLANTs!" Shiho suddenly realized, horrified.

And indeed it was. Four colonies were struck directly and destroyed. Nobody in any of them lived for more than a few moments. Two additional colonies were destroyed when one of the stricken colonies collided with them.

Onboard the _Gondwana_, the attack was also detected.

"High-energy beam detected from the far side the moon!" came the sudden report. "It's...what the hell?"

Durendal stood, looking shocked at what he saw, as the gigantic megacarrier's displays showed the beam bending once, twice, three times, then continue until it struck the PLANTs.

The reaction is the gigantic vessel's control room was horrified.

"What the...what the hell just happened?"

- "This is...this is monstrous."

- "What was that?" Durendal asked, his fists clenched, his expression frightening as he stood, shaking with barely-suppressed anger. "Where did that attack come from? I want an explanation, RIGHT NOW!"

Inside the control room of Daedalus Base, the reports were coming in as well.

"Direct hit to Januarius 1 through 4; December 7 and 8 collapsed after a collision with Januarius 4."

- "Januarius?" Jibril exclaimed, confused and angered at this development. "I told you to destroy Aprilius, damn it!"

- "How did that happen?"

- "There was a slight deviation in Gounod's angle at the last moment; we suspect it may have been caused by the ongoing battle against ZAFT forces."

The Hahnenfuss and Channis Teams too were reeling from what they had just witnessed.

"What...what the hell was that?" Shiho asked, her voice shaky, as the mobile suits of both teams regrouped.

- "Januarius...and December too." Dearka said somberly. "Who would have expected this...and all the way from behind the moon."

- "Dearka!" Shiho said sharply. "We're destroying this thing - if they get off another shot, the PLANTs are finished!"

- "Roger that." Dearka replied. "We have to take this fucking thing out, no matter what."

- "Right." Shiho said. "Channis Team, on the ships! Hahnenfuss Team, focus on destroying that colony!"

While the Channis Team's mobile suits engaged the enemy fleet, led by Shiho's GOUF Ignited, Dearka took command of the Hahnenfuss Team's Blaze and Gunner ZAKUs as they, along with all four ships, unleashed their weapons at the colony, which began to split apart.

Though the inside of the colony may have been equipped with a Geschmeidig Panzer energy-deflection array, the outside was not so protected, and the withering barrage of beam cannon and missile attacks shattered the colony, tearing it apart, even as the enemy fleet was destroyed.

Not a single one of the Atlantic Federation forces survived the battle; every last mobile suit was exterminated, and their duty done, the four ships and the Hahnenfuss Team ZAKUs turned their weapons on the enemy ships, destroying them all without hesitation or mercy.

By the time it was over, every mobile suit and every ship had been destroyed. There were no survivors among the Alliance forces.

Their bloody work done, the four ZAFT vessels retrieved their mobile suits and began to head back.

**Orb Union**

In Orb, the news of the attack on the PLANTs and the death of more than three million innocent civilians caused outrage throughout the country's mixed population of Naturals and Coordinators. In the Government headquarters, Cagalli had immediately summoned Rondo Mina Sahaku.

"This is like what happened with GENESIS..." she said, remembering the giant gamma-ray laser built by the PLANTs during the previous war. "Mina, is there a chance that they could strike Orb with that thing?"

- "To be honest, I think their next target will remain the PLANTs." Mina said. "I doubt they were intending to strike Januarius - I suspect they would target Aprilius first; for some reason, they missed."

- "You didn't answer my question." Cagalli said.

- "Then to put it simply, there is no point they cannot hit with a weapon like this. So yes, they could target Orb."

- "Send for Murrue Ramius, Andrew Waltfeld, Ledonir Kisaka, and Fumihiko Todaka." She ordered. "And relay a message to _Ame-no-Mihashira_: I want our space fleet ready for combat; every ship fueled, supplied, and ready for launch as soon as possible."

- "Very well." Mina acknowledged. "And will you want me to head up to supervise the preparations?"

- "No, I need you here." Cagalli said. "I will lead them personally."

Mina bowed, then left.

"So, the cycle continues." Cagalli muses. "The Atlantic Federation fired on the PLANTs; now, the PLANTs will probably attack them in return."

She wondered if they would ever break free of this chain that seemed to bind them.

Durendal had said that Logos was responsible for this, but Cagalli wondered.

"Not just the PLANTs...I don't think anyone would have wanted this."

In any case, what mattered right now was the destruction of that weapon. She made a couple of calls, then sat down.

She had done, for now, everything she could. Whether or not they had to make their move, she knew, they would be ready.

**Oceania Union**  
><strong>ZAFT Forces Carpentaria Base<strong>  
><strong>LHM-BB01 <em>Minerva<em>**

"Captain!" Arthur yelled, panicking. "Emergency transmission from the homeland."

Yzak entered the bridge, saw the screen, and swore at the top of his lungs.

- "Motherfucking BASTARDS!" Yzak roared. "They fired on us from Daedalus, while our attention was on Arzachel."

Throughout the ship, the reaction was much the same as well.

In the ship's ready room, Athrun was standing, a horrified expression on his face as he saw six colonies destroyed; over three million innocent people dead, just like that. It was like the Bloody Valentine Massacre all over again, but far, far worse this time.

Behind him, Stella had her face buried in Shinn's shoulder, positively terrified by what she had just seen. Shinn himself was shaking, his fists clenched, rage burning in his red eyes.

"But how?" Lunamaria asked, "How could they possibly have...from the far side of the moon? It's impossible!"

- "No, it's not." Athrun said flatly. "They used massive Geschmeidig Panzer systems to bend the beam multiple times; probably, they installed them in abandoned colonies."

- "You're kidding..." Shinn said, "Is there anything these bastards won't do?"

- "Apparently not." Athrun replied grimly. "With something like this, with even just a half-dozen reflection points in the right place, there is literally no target they can't hit."

- "DAMN IT!" Shinn swore. "All this because we let that bastard Jibril get away!"

- "This is your Captain speaking." Yzak suddenly said over the ship's PA System. "I'm sure by now you have heard that Januarius 1 through 4 and December 7 and 8 have been destroyed by an attack from the Atlantic Federation's Daedalus lunar base."

The entire ship went silent, as Yzak continued.

"The situation is simple: That weapon must be destroyed. Those are the orders we have received from the homeland. We will rendezvous in orbit with the _Gondwana_ and the Orbital Fleet. From there, we will be launching an immediate attack on Daedalus."

In the ready room, Athrun, Shinn, Stella and Lunamaria stood, listening to Yzak, their own resolve matching his.

"I know we've had a rough time, and we're all probably exhausted after the battles we've just had." Yzak said. "But we have to do this, or we might not have a home to go back to. So let's get to it!"

Preparations began to launch immediately, including the installation of a gigantic pair of reusable atmospheric boosters, which were fitted to the _Minerva_. Mounted to port and starboard, each one was almost the same size as the ship itself, and their intent was to provide the enormous amount of thrust that would allow the ship to exit the atmosphere. Once a certain speed and altitude were reached, the two now-useless boosters would be jettisoned and fall into the ocean to be recovered. On the bridge, and throughout the ship, her crew - pilots, mobile suits and all - was ready. Yzak sat waiting. He was tense, more tense than he had been in years. So was everyone else on board.

Never before had they sailed into a mission of such importance, and all of them knew it.

"Engines to maximum." Yzak ordered. "Sierra Antares One, _Minerva_ is taking off!"

The ship took off, and as soon as it had left the water, the gigantic boosters ignited, and it soared upwards on its way back into space, where it belonged. Once they reached the correct altitude, small explosive charges set along the side where the boosters were attached detonated, separating the two now-empty boosters, which began to fall back towards the ocean.

When at last the ship had cleared the atmosphere and escaped into space, it began to level off, and ejected the now-empty boosters. Yzak let out a breath he had not realized he'd been holding, and asked for a status report.

"All systems green, sir." Arthur reported from his console.

- "Good." Yzak replied. "Abby, anything on the comms?"

- "No, sir." Abby replied. "Not yet."

"Sir!" Bart suddenly replied. "Detecting two approaching vessels, distance 6,000 and closing...ID code confirmed; it's the _Voltaire_ and the _Rousseau_."

"Excellent." Yzak replied, then he turned to Abby. "Open up a communications link to the _Voltaire_."

"Yes, sir." Abby replied, and within minutes, he was looking at the familiar faces of his two closest subordinates: Dearka Elsman and Shiho Hahnenfuss.

Both of them looked much the same as always, but there was something grim about their expressions, which was understandable.

"Welcome back into outer space, Commander Joule." Dearka said, accenting the title in that slightly mocking way he did, which infuriated Yzak, but given the circumstances, he let it slide.

- "It's good to be back, Dearka." He said. "Though, under the circumstances..."

- "You've made quite a name for yourself down there, Yzak - finally taking down the _Archangel_ and the Freedom." Shiho replied, and Yzak smirked. Dearka looked uneasy, but said nothing.

- "Well, I can take full credit for at least taking down the ship, but the mobile suit was someone else's kill." Yzak replied. "Now, I take it by your presence that you've been involved in this latest situation."

Shiho nodded, then replied grimly.  
>- "The PLANTs detected one of the relay stations as it approached our air defense network, and dispatched the Hahnenfuss Team to investigate. We were engaging enemy forces when...when the attack happened."<p>

- "On the other hand, we did destroy the damn thing." Dearka added.

- "Good. That's one less thing to worry about, at least for now." Yzak said. "Now, we just have to worry about taking out the rest. You have updated orders from headquarters?"

Shiho nodded again.  
>- "We do. The Hahnenfuss Team and the Minerva are to rendez-vous with the Orbital Fleet and the <em>Gondwana<em> in lunar orbit to prepare for a full-scale assault on Daedalus." She said. Then, with a sly twinkle in her eye, but the same professional monotone, she added, "Or perhaps I should say, those are the Joule Team's orders."

Yzak raised an eyebrow, to which Dearka responded with his customary grin.  
>- "At least," he said, "we assumed you'd want to put the band back together."<p>

- "Goddamn right we are." Yzak said, with a sincere smile, as he thought of how well the three of them knew each other. And now they had Athrun, too. Then there was Shinn - an infuriatingly hot-headed kid, brash, mean-tempered...and far more like Yzak himself had been not so long ago than the veteran commander was prepared to admit. But a brilliant pilot all the same.

The two Nazcas joined up with the _Minerva_, and the now three-ship-strong Joule Team veered on its course away from Earth orbit and towards the moon.

Soon, the gigantic mega-carrier _Gondwana_, a massive vessel capable of carrying nearly five hundred mobile suits, plus its escort fleet of Nazca- and Laurasia-class battleships, appeared at the very edge of the _Minerva's_ sensor range, and Yzak was somewhat surprised to find a rather sizable fleet of Alliance vessels also positioned on the outer flank of the ZAFT fleet. Largely composed of Agamemnon-class carriers and Nelson-class battleships, with a fairly large number of smaller Drake-class escort vessels, the Alliance fleet was led by a sleek black assault carrier, which Yzak judged to be similar in capabilities to the _Minerva_ - or perhaps the Archangel-class. Four linear catapults, a fairly impressive array of beam cannons, and he suspected a sizable number of missile launchers. He also noticed what seemed to be a panel on her starboard bow that looked like it could house a positron cannon.

"That's the same class of ship as the one that attacked us at Junius Seven." Athrun, who had come up to the bridge, commented. Yzak nodded.

"Yep." He said. "It's also the same vessel that led the Eurasian Federation fleet in the Battle of Theophilus."

Athrun did not reply, as both men were thinking the same thing; They were going after Daedalus Base, a major Atlantic Federation military stronghold, second in importance only to the much larger Arzachel. If they were going to be attacking that kind of target, the more forces they had, the better.

The Joule Team approached the fleet, and Yzak established a communications line to the _Gondwana_. He followed the flagship's instructions and moved, followed by the two Nazca-class ships, into a position on the inside front of the fleet, near the _Gondwana_.

Following orders from the enormous flagship, Yzak, Athrun, and Shinn boarded a small shuttle which transported them over to the enormous carrier. As they exited the shuttle, they were met by an armed escort, but Yzak noted with some interest an Alliance-type shuttle in the hangar, not far away.

They were led into a spacious room above the ship's gigantic main control room, where Supreme Council Chairman Gilbert Durendal was seated, waiting for them. Standing next to him was an older ZAFT officer, a short, stocky bulldog of a man named Morgan whom Yzak knew by name but had never met.

Also present, standing on the opposite side of a large holographic display table, was a woman in Eurasian Federation uniform, with short, black hair, and whom Yzak judged to be in her late twenties or early thirties. Her rank insignia identified her as a Captain.

"Ah, Commander Joule." Durendal said pleasantly, but there was a hard edge to his voice. "And Athrun and Shinn, as well. It's good to see you both again, despite the circumstances. Allow me to introduce you to Commander George Morgan, of the _Hirschfelder_, and Captain Natarle Badgiruel, of the Eurasian Federation's _Alakhshya_."

Yzak saluted, as did Athrun and Shinn. The other two officers returned the salute, then all of them gathered around the table, as Durendal dismissed the escort.

Yzak saw a map of the Earth Sphere, with the moon and the five Lagrange points clearly indicated. He also saw Daedalus, Arzachel, Theophilus, as well as the PLANTs and roughly a half-dozen additional points, which he assumed were the relay stations of the enemy cannon.

"As you can see," Durendal said, "the enemy weapon is dependent on these relay stations, which redirect the beam fired from Daedalus. Right now, there are a total of six."

- "Five." Yzak interrupted. "The _Voltaire_ and _Rousseau_ destroyed this one." He indicated the point nearest to the PLANTs.

- "Excellent." Durendal said, then continued, "Five, then. These relay stations would be heavily defended, and I suspect that they will launch additional forces, probably from Daedalus, maybe even Arzachel, to reinforce them. Our targets, then, are the cannon barrel itself, and the first relay station, located here."

- "Forgive me, Mr. Chairman," Morgan interrupted, "but there is a significant distance between the two targets; I am not sure whether it is worthwhile to bother - if the cannon is hit, then the relay stations become irrelevant."

- "That may be so; however, attacking at a single point would lead us into a battle of attrition that the enemy, due to the presence of reinforcements from Arzachel in addition to their own forces, could very well win."

- "Divide and conquer;" Natarle interceded. "Put the enemy in a position where they have to divide their forces between multiple points."

- "Exactly." Durendal commented. "Our strategy, then, will be simple: The Gondwana will lead the bulk of the ZAFT fleet, as well as most of the Alliance vessels, in an attack on the first Relay Station. This will draw the enemy forces out to force them to defend the station. Then, the Minerva will lead a smaller force to attack the cannon itself."

- "I see." Yzak replied. "How small a force are we talking about here...The _Minerva_ alone won't be enough - at least the _Voltaire_ and the _Rousseau_. I think maybe four or five ships, just to be sure, would be about it."

- "My own ship makes four," Captain Badgiruel spoke up. "And, if Commander Morgan is agreeable, his vessel would make five."

- "Fine with me." Morgan said gruffly.

- "Very well then." Durendal spoke up. "I think that will do very nicely. Commander Joule, if you would remain here a moment. Commander Morgan, Captain Badgiruel - we are counting on you."

- "Yes, sir." Morgan replied with a salute. Natarle nodded, saluting briefly, before turning on her heel and leaving. Yzak, Athrun, and Shinn remained.

- "You have all performed admirably these past few months, apart from the unfortunate failure of Operation Fury. Operation Retribution is perhaps the most important battle we will fight." Durendal said

- "We will not fail." Yzak replied firmly. Shinn nodded, as did Athrun.

- "I hope not. But all the same, the Minerva is being resupplied in preparation for the battle. I will also be asking that you take on one additional pilot - though it should not, I think, be a problem."

As Durendal spoke, a door entered and Heine Westenfluss entered, waving good-naturedly.

"Hey, guys." He said with a smile even as he saluted.

"Good to see you again, Heine." Athrun replied. "Are you going to be joining us for this one?"

- "'Fraid not." Heine replied. "I'm on the _Prémontval_, and we're assigned to escort the _Gondwana_. He'll be joining you guys, though." He said, and gestured over his shoulder as a second man entered.

Shinn stared, speechless. The newcomer wore a red uniform, on which was pinned the silver-and-gold emblem of a member of FAITH. Icy blue eyes looked appraisingly across the room, partly hidden by long, blonde hair, and the handsome face was heavily scarred, but even so, he knew the newcomer.

He had never thought that he would ever be standing in front of him like that again.

- "I...I can't believe it." He stammered. "Rey."

Rey Za Burrel nodded.  
>- "It's good to see you again, Shinn." He said, with a small smile.<p>

- "I thought you were dead!" Shinn exclaimed. "The Freedom..."

- "The Freedom shot me down." He added. "The ZAKU was destroyed and the escape pod was heavily damaged - its emergency beacon malfunctioned and did not transmit. When you left, additional ships were sent from Bandirma to continue the search. They found me and recovered the escape pod."

- "I...I'm so glad you're alive." Shinn said earnestly, and Rey smiled in a pained sort of way.

- "I almost didn't make it - I nearly died before they were able to pull me out. But I was able to get medical treatment at Bandirma, and then in the PLANTs. I saw your battle against the Freedom. You did great."

- "Thanks." Shinn said, but behind him, Athrun noted there was something hollow in the way he said it; his best friend's praise meant a lot, but still Shinn remembered what they had talked about. Athrun was impressed, as he realized once again how much Shinn had grown.

- "So, are you going to be rejoining the _Minerva_?" Yzak asked from behind them. Rey looked over at him, and shook his head.

- "Since I returned to active duty, I've been assigned to the _Hirschfelder_." Rey said flatly. "Though, of course, I will be taking part in this operation."

- "In that case," Shinn said, "wouldn't it be better if at least until we attack you were onboard the _Minerva_? That way we can..."

Rey smiled again, and shrugged. "Fair enough." He said.

Durendal dismissed them, expressing once again his expectation that they succeed, especially in light of the addition of Rey and his machine, and the entire group assured him that they would not let you down.

Durendal handed to Yzak a digital readout of the capabilities of Rey's new machine, the ZGMF-X66R Legend Gundam, which would be transported from the _Gondwana_ to the _Minerva_ by its pilot, and the group left.

The shuttle landed in the hangar first, followed by the Legend, which took an empty berth across from the Destiny. Looking up at the new model standing across from his own machine, Shinn was struck by how alike the two of them were. It was as if they had been designed from a common base, which indeed they had been.

But most of the hangar crew and pilots had also turned up, including Lunamaria, who asked him.

- "What's with that new model? Who's the pilot?"

- "It's a temporary assignment - reinforcements to our mobile suit team for this operation." Shinn said. Stella was not far behind, and she soon took a place on Shinn's other side.

- "But who is it?" Luna asked again, but Shinn said nothing.  
>Then the Legend's pilot disembarked and removed his helmet, and Lunamaria screamed.<p>

- "REY!" She ran up to him and literally threw herself at him, somewhat embarrassing the normally stoic Rey. "You JERK! I thought you were dead!"

- "Sorry." Rey said, unsure of what else to say. "I thought I was too, but I guess not. At least, not for now."

Then he saw several faces he didn't recognize, as Yzak introduced the two pilots of the ship's DOM Troopers. But the one that caught his attention was standing some distance away from him, and he glanced at her after giving the two men a perfunctory salute.

She too wore a ZAFT green uniform, but Rey was sure the very pretty blonde looking warily at him from next to and slightly behind Shinn was...different. He wasn't sure how, but something about her seemed to put Rey on his guard.

- "Oh, I see you spotted Shinn's girlfriend." Yzak said sarcastically as he followed Rey's line of sight.

- "What? Shinn's..." Rey asked, puzzled.

Shinn stepped forward at that point. The girl followed him, hanging a step behind, still eyeing Rey warily.

- "Rey, this is Stella Loussier. She...joined the _Minerva_ while we were on Earth. I'll explain later." He spoke the last in an undertone, and Rey nodded.

Then he turned towards her. "Stella, this is Rey. Rey Za Burrel - he's a very close friend of mine."

- "It's a pleasure to meet you, Stella." Rey said pleasantly, and the girl's expression softened, but there was still something in her eyes that told Rey that she was still on her guard.

- "It's...good to meet you too." She said.

Some time later, the group of pilots - Athrun, Shinn, Lunamaria, Stella and Rey - sat around a table in the ship's rec room, as Rey recounted again what had happened to him since his ZAKU was shot down. In turn, Athrun and Shinn took it in turns to tell their returned comrade what had happened on the ship since Rey went MIA.

"I see." Rey said. "Well, a lot has happened to you guys; but I can see why Chairman Durendal values this ship so much - with everything you've been through, all the experiences you've had..." He turned to Shinn. "Especially you, Shinn."

- "Me?" Shinn replied, somewhat puzzled. "How...What'd you mean?"

- "Well, think about it - The incident in Germany, Operation Angel Down, then Heaven's Base, Orb - that's a lot to go through. Especially Orb - to have to be fighting against your homeland like that."

- "Orb may be where I was born," Shinn said flatly, "but it's not home. Not anymore."

- "Still. And then there's this whole story with you and Stella." he continued "Honestly, I'm having a hard time believing it."

- "I know!" Lunamaria piped up. "I still can't believe it either. It's like something out of a romance novel or something. But looking back, I think Commander Westenfluss saw it coming before the rest of us."

- "Except maybe Athrun." Shinn interjected, with a sidelong glance at the older pilot. "I get a sense that he had a pretty good idea what was happening pretty early on."

Athrun nodded. "I had a suspicion, at least." He said. "A couple of things about you clued me in - probably the same things Heine noticed."

Shinn nodded, smiling. Sitting next to him, Stella smiled as well, but didn't say anything.

- "I guess so. But it's pretty amazing that you were able to pull something like that off." Rey continued to say. "To have succeeded so tremendously in trying circumstances like this; I really think that between you, Athrun, and Commander Joule, we have the top three pilots in all of ZAFT on this ship."

Shinn beamed at the praise, especially from Rey - someone whom he had known since the Academy. They had always known each other, first as rivals, and then as friends. Before the end of Shinn's first year, they had become so close as to be almost inseparable - like brothers. At least, that is how Shinn saw it. He saw Rey as a brother, and so was glad beyond words that, contrary to what he had believed, he had survived after all.

"And we're going to need it." Rey continued. "This operation could very well be the final battle of this war."

- "I hope so." Shinn said firmly.

And as they sat together, even as the five-ship formation began to peel off from the main fleet as it headed out towards its own destination, each one reflected, as did every single member of the crew, on the battle they faced. Quite possibly the greatest one they ever had, or ever would face.

Shinn thought that he knew that when they got there, they would find that bastard Jibril.

The one responsible for everything.

The one he had sworn he would kill himself.

But this time, he knew as they all did, would be their final chance. If they succeeded, then the war was over; But if they failed, every man, woman and child in the PLANTs, and millions more on Earth, would pay the price.


	31. Phase 31: Counterattack

**PHASE 31: Counterattack**

In the PLANTs, the situation had not been so chaotic since, ten months earlier, the nuclear attack by the Alliance. But this time, the situation was a thousand times worse.

Because this time, they had not been able to stop the attack.

In her quarters in a luxurious villa of Aprilius Two, Meer Campbell watched the panic grow, and she thought of the more than three million innocent men and women who had been killed.

She was at a loss as to what to do.

_'What would you do, Miss Lacus?'_ she wondered, and she glanced in the mirror over her dresser, hating herself for not knowing what to do.

Onboard the _Gondwana_, Gilbert Durendal was increasingly angry, as he was in communication with his staff at Aprilius One including George Adaman, who also sat on the Supreme Council, and seemed to be getting nowhere.

"The entire city is in a panic, sir; and it's not just here; The remaining Januarius and December colonies, and everywhere else, too! The situation's getting completely out of control!" Adaman was saying.

- "I realize that," Durendal said shortly, "but you have to take charge over there; it is your job to get it under control!"

- "Sir, I must insist that you return to deal with this; the security of the homeland and the rescue of any survivors must come first. We can always deal with the situation once the situation at home had been stabilized."

- "No." Durendal said firmly. "I understand where you're coming from, but what happens if they fire a second shot?"

- "Well, what about a settlement, or some kind of ceasefire?"

- "A ceasefire, George? Are you serious?" Durendal replied, his voice rising as he fought to control his growing anger and impatience. "We're not talking about another nation or any kind of legitimate political body here. You cannot negotiate with terrorists whose stated goal is genocide! Or are you suggesting we surrender to them?"

- "But sir," Adaman started bleating.

- "Spare me your complaints." Durendal interrupted, a hint of disdain creeping into his voice. "If it's too much for you, get Chairwoman Joule and the National Defense Committee to take over." He slammed down the phone, then made a call to Martius City, and as he expected, found Ezalia at her office, working to try and get things under control.

- "Of course," she said when he explained the situation, "I'll ask someone to take care of things here and head over right away."

That situation dealt with for now, Durendal turned his attention to his military commanders, as the _Gondwana_ led the enormous ZAFT orbital fleet on its course directly towards the first of the enemy weapon's relay stations. He was counting on rapid detection of his own ships and deployment by the Atlantic Federation of its forces at Daedalus, and ideally also from Arzachel.

- Durendal's expectations were met, as deep within Daedalus's control room, the ZAFT fleet's movement was detected nearly instantly.

- "The ZAFT orbital fleet is on the move! Yellow 136 Alpha - They're heading towards Fauré!" the announcement rang throughout Daedalus's control room.

- "Hurry up and recharge the Requiem now!" Shaw ordered. "And make sure that the positioning for the second movement is completely accurate!"

- "Yes, sir." came the response. Jibril turned to shaw, smirking.

- "This time, we will wipe Aprilius out for good." He said. "Make sure to keep the relay and the cannon protected."

- "Right." Shaw replied. "I've sent orders to Arzachel to mobilize the Eighth Mobile Fleet, and I'm also sending the Third Fleet as well to reinforce Fauré - we'll make sure that their defenses are completely airtight."

And from both Arzachel and Daedalus, dozens of additional vessels launched, heading out towards the nearest relay station, Fauré, where they were expecting to engage the ZAFT fleet - and probably those fool Eurasian traitors, as well.

But that was fine, Jibril thought. They could deal with Eurasia once the PLANTs had been obliterated.

**Orb Union**

In the Orb Union, Cagalli stared, shocked, at the attack and the resulting devastation; 3.3 million civilians dead in the destruction of six PLANT colonies.

She had already begun making preparations to muster the Orb space fleet, and at Onogoro and Kaguya, preparations were underway for the _Kusanagi_ to be launched, where it would rejoin its three sister ships, the _Izumo, Susanoo_, and _Tsukiyomi_, at Ame-no-Mihashira.

But all the same, she wanted to do something.

"I wonder how things are in the PLANTs." she said, to nobody in particular. But nearby, Ledonir Kisaka replied.

- "I am certain that ZAFT will do everything in their power to prevent any more attacks on the PLANTs." He said reassuringly. "All we can do here is prepare for any eventuality."

- "I hope you're right." she said. "But that thing's not just a threat to the PLANTs. What's to stop them from firing at Eurasia, or Orb?"

- "That is true." Rondo Mina Sahaku, who walked up to them, intervened. "Which is why, I presume, we are making preparations to mobilize the Orb space fleet."

- "Yeah." Cagalli replied. "Have we heard anything from the PLANTs, or from Eurasia?"

- "Nothing, milady." Mina replied. "I have learned that an extremely large fleet has begun moving from lunar orbit towards one of the relays, but nothing has come back to us; it appears that they have not requested our assistance as of yet."

- "I see." Cagalli said. "It's frustrating, not being able to help - but there's nothing we can do right now, except be ready."

She wondered especially where the Joule Team was now, and what they were doing.

At that very moment, the Joule Team was in lunar orbit, moving slowly towards its target. The seven-ship group - The Minerva and its two escorts, plus the _Hirschfelder_, the _Alakhshya_, and two Nelson-class escorts - was in tight formation, as on the bridge of the Minerva, the three leaders of the operation - Yzak, Captain Badgiruel, and Commander Morgan - ran through their strategy.

"It looks like Arzachel has sent the bulk of their forces out to defend the Relay Station, and Daedalus sent forces as well." Yzak said. "So far, everything is going according to plan."

- "Now, what's our strategy?" Morgan replied inquiringly, his tone rather brusquely implying his own skepticism as to the worth of their current battle strength relative to their objective.

- "The same; I expect that a fairly sizable defense force is still going to be present here despite these deployments. For that reason, the _Voltaire, Rousseau_, and _Hirschfelder_ will make an initial attack here," he said, indicating the far side of the base, "escorted by the _Zumwalt_ and the _Spruance_. The objective is to hit the enemy base, and attack their defenses - keep their forces busy as much as possible. Open with an initial long-range attack from the ships, then deploy mobile suits."

- "And the _Minerva_?" Morgan asked.

- "The _Minerva_ and _Alakhshya_ will make a covert approach, using the terrain mask to close in here." Yzak indicated a second point, on the far side of the base from where he had initially indicated. Nearest to there was the barrel of the Cannon itself. "The goal, of course, is to eliminate the cannon's control systems and prevent them from firing a second shot."

- "Without knowing how long its power charge cycle is," Natarle interceded, "The question is how much time do we have left?"

- "Probably not long." Yzak replied. "However, while the enemy is largely preoccupied with the lunar fleet, we have sufficient forces here to carry out both a decoy maneuver with the three Nazcas and two Nelsons, plus a separate surprise attack on the cannon with the other two ships."

The other officers nodded, and once Morgan and Captain Badgiruel returned to their ships to brief their forces, Yzak summoned his pilots to brief them, and he briefly relayed their strategy.

- "This mission is of the utmost importance, and it is probably going to be the toughest one we've ever had." Yzak said. "But if we fail, we won't have a home to go back to. And that is not an option. Got that?"

- "Yes, sir." Athrun and Shinn replied simultaneously. Nobody else spoke.

Shinn's expression was essentially neutral, but Yzak saw the look of barely-controlled rage in the young pilot's red eyes, the same Yzak himself felt. And he marveled internally at this uncharacteristic level of self-control from his hot-headed young charge.

Shinn's anger was also reflected in Athrun's own expression. Except for the immutable Rey, the others all looked scared, or angry, or both.

Understandable, Yzak knew. As long as nobody screwed up, he didn't give a damn.

- "Obviously," Rey spoke up, "We can't allow that thing to be fired again. No matter what it takes."

- "Right." Yzak nodded. "So you all know the stakes. Do not fail."

- "Yes, sir!" They all replied.

Yzak nodded, and he began to outline their strategy: Shinn, Athrun, Rey, Luna and Stella would launch in their machines to attack the cannon while the Minerva and Alakhshya - the latter hidden by its Mirage Colloid Stealth System - would carry out a long-range bombardment of the base's defenses. It would be up to Luna and Stella to target the cannon itself, while the other three engaged the enemy mobile suit defenses.

The briefing concluded, he dismissed his pilots, who headed out to get ready and stand by for launch. And so, the final preparations were made.

On the screen in the ready room, Rey, Shinn and Athrun watched footage of the battle that was even then ongoing at Fauré, the station's second relay point.

"If the Gondwana and the lunar fleet can take out that relay station before they fire, the PLANTs should be safe for now. But, if they fire first, we lose the fleet too." Athrun said somberly.

- "And you know that madman won't hesitate to pull the trigger." Rey added. "Not for a second."

- "Yeah," Shinn said darkly "he's the one to blame for all of this - the head of Logos. Lord Jibril."

- "If only we'd been able to shoot him down in Orb." Lunamaria said.

- "It's not your fault, Luna." Shinn said. "It's the Seirans' fault for giving him refuge in the first place. If they hadn't..."

Athrun caught the distinction - that Shinn had specifically laid the blame where it belonged, at the feet of the late Seirans, rather than blaming Orb as he might have done.

Had the situation not been so grim, he would have smiled.

- "In any case," Rey said coldly, "We can't turn back the clock. If that's how you feel, just make sure you don't make the same mistake again."

- "Rey!" Shinn interjected, but at a glance from Athrun he felt silent.

- "We just have to make sure that this time, he can't escape." Athrun said. "The PLANTs or the lunar fleet - we have to take them down before they have the chance to fire at either."

- "And as for Jibril..." Shinn said firmly, his voice shaking with anger. "If I get the chance, I'll kill him myself."

Even as the ship continued to close in, the ZAFT and Alliance ships led by the _Hirschfelder_ began their own attack.

"Requiem is operating, charge at 48%" Came the report inside the base. "Positioning for Second Movement nearly complete."

They would be ready to fire soon, and that in spite of the ZAFT attack; Among the reinforcements to Fauré had been a team of Positron Reflector-equipped Drake-class escort ships, which had taken up their positions shortly before the enemy arrived, and now, the relay station was impregnable - even as the reinforced mobile armor teams kept the ZAFT forces occupied.

Their victory was assured - all but inevitable now.

Then, a barrage of missiles was detected coming in, and the base's defenses moved into action. On the edge of the complex, an array of 75mm CIWS turrets began firing, laying down a hail of cannonfire that intercepted more than half of the enemy salvo, even as the mobile suits began to deploy.

But the barrage, followed by a second wave of missiles, then a withering salvo of beam cannonfire, wreaked havoc on the base defenses.

- "We've detected the enemy ships - three Nazca-class and two Nelson-class vessels, closing in. The enemy is deploying mobile suits as well."

- "Begin our counterattack at once!" Shaw ordered. "Deploy mobile armors immediately."

Throughout the base, formations of TS/MA-5B Euclids began to launch, at the same time as two ground-based Gells-Ghe mobile armors, which deployed at key strategic points, and a single Zamza-Zah, which soared in towards the approaching enemy mobile suits.

The Zamza-Zah opened fire first, decimating the wave of GAT-04 Windams that had launched from the two Nelson-class ships, but at that moment a blue ZAFT GOUF Ignited and a black Blaze ZAKU Warrior moved in towards the mobile armor, attacking it from two sides. The ZAKU fired its beam rifle and a volley of missiles. Then, even as the Zamza-Zah deployed its positron reflector, the GOUF Ignited closed in. The Zamza-Zah could not fire through its own reflector, and the GOUF Ignited's "Slayer Whip" heat rod passed through the field as if it wasn't there, slicing off the two rearmost reflector emitters. With the reflector field disabled, the two machines opened fire, destroying the mobile armor.

On the bridge of the _Hirschfelder_, Commander Morgan watched their progress with some satisfaction, until suddenly his CIC spoke up.

"Multiple enemy mobile armors approaching! One of them is closing in at...three times the speed of the others!"

- "What?" Morgan exclaimed.

A formation of Euclid mobile armors approached the three ships. But ahead of them was a larger machine. Similar to the Euclids, but half again as long, an ominous, dark green monster streaking impossibly fast across the battlefield towards the approaching ships.

This was the prototype from which the Euclid had been developed, the TSX/MA-4QF Thales. Developed based on the Zamza-Zah, Gells-Ghe, and Chaos, as well as the Destroy, it was armed with two powerful beam guns, a multiphase beam cannon, a missile launcher, two shell-firing gatling guns, and four wirelessly-controlled gunbarrels, and defended by an array of positron reflectors. It was also the fastest mobile weapon of its kind ever created, and it shot past the first line of enemy mobile weapons easily, then deployed its gunbarrels, targeting the two Nelson-class escorts as they moved in to defend the Nazca-class ships. The Spruance fell within moments, crippled by the initial attack, as the Thales finished it off with a barrage from its fixed weapons.

Dearka and Shiho, at that moment, fired on the Thales, and at its controls, Lukas O'Donnell dodged the attacks with ease.

"Well now, this is my kind of mobile armor." Lukas commented with a savage grin. "No way in hell the Coordinators are going to be able to defeat us."

As he drew a bead on the black ZAKU Warrior, he reflected again on his old maxim. "The only good Coordinator is a dead one." He commented as he fired. The ZAKU was barely able to block the attack, but it and the GOUF Ignited counter-attacked. He activated his mobile armor's positron reflectors, blocking the incoming assault.

- "That bastard took out four of our mobile suits and one of the ships in barely thirty seconds." Dearka railed as he fired again. "We have to take him out!"

- "I know, Dearka." Shiho replied. "But I can't seem to close in - he's too goddamn fast, and those gunbarrels are a problem too."

She glanced at the digital readout on her console. They were running out of time - but if they could just hold it off a little while longer...

Inside Daedalus's control room, Shaw smirked.

"O'Connell is certainly proving more than a match for the Coordinators." he said. "And the Thales is a hell of a machine."

- "Good." Jibril smirked. "What's the status of Requiem?"

- "We're at 50% charge; Our forces at Fauré are successfully holding them back as well."

- "Excellent - keep it up." Jibril said. "If we can protect Fauré just a little longer, victory will be ours."

- "You're right about that." Shaw said. "And finally we'll have put an end to the war with those accursed Coordinators."

- "Where others failed, we at last will triumph." Jibril said emphatically. "And I am the one who did it! History itself will be corrected in a matter of hours."

- "Missiles incoming from ten o'clock, sir!" the alert rang out suddenly as a volley of missiles streaked in...from the other side of the base, at the complete opposite of the ongoing battle.

- "What?" Shaw retorted. "Where the hell did they come from? What ship?"

- "Unknown, sir. Detecting no enemy vessels in that sector."

The LHM-BB01 _Minerva_, unbeknownst to Daedalus, had begun its attack, firing a volley of MMI-M382S space-use "Fafnir-S" missiles; a space-use variant of the ship's devastating supersonic cruise missile, it had a cruising speed of only 800 knots - less than half of the naval-use Fafnir-E - but a 600kg explosive warhead. Two volleys of four missiles soared towards Daedalus, fired from the ship's position outside the base's detection range and protected by the terrain. Too fast for the base's defenses to intercept, the missiles slammed into it, inflicting horrifying damage to the structure and nearly obliterating the base's fixed defenses in that sector.

Once the missiles were fired, the _Minerva_ accelerated, its weapons armed, pilots standing by onboard their machines for immediate launch.

"Lunamaria." Athrun said over the comms. "Remember - your timing has to be perfect. Stella will cover you, and Shinn, Rey and I will back you up as best we can."

- "Right." Lunamaria replied. "I know what I have to do."

- "Good." Athrun said. "Shinn, Rey - you guys are the best shot we have. You know what to do."

- "Roger that." Came the simultaneous reply from the two, who would be the first of the five of them to launch.

In the cockpit of the Destiny, Shinn was ready, steeling himself once again for battle. He thought of Lunamaria, Stella, and all of the people on board.

_'I'll protect them. The ship, the PLANTs. Everyone - I'll protect them all. I swear.'_ He thought grimly.

Even as above the stealth-cloaked Alakhshya fired a volley of missiles from its own launchers, the Minerva's mobile suits began to launch. First to exit were Shinn's Destiny and Rey's Legend, followed immediately by the two Impulse Gundams, then Athrun's Saviour.

And as they moved in, they were at last detected by Daedalus's defense forces.

- "More missiles closing in from ten o'clock, sir! Also, we're detecting an incoming enemy vessel - distance, 500 - it's the _Minerva_, sir! Five mobile suits are inbound!"

- "What?! The _Minerva_ is here?!" Jibril retorted. As far as he knew, that accursed ship was still at Carpentaria. So how...it didn't matter.

- "Incompetent fools! How did it get this close unnoticed?" Shaw demanded. "Scramble additional forces, sound the alarm! And get O'Connell over here! Intercept that ship immediately!"

Additional forces were mustered - mostly Daggers, as unfortunately the bulk of their Euclid forces were tied up at Fauré or on the other side of the base, where the battle continued.

But the Gells-Ghe was diverted, and an additional one as well as a Zamza-Zah were launched, all of them headed towards the _Minerva_ and its mobile suits.

Meanwhile onboard the _Gondwana_, Durendal received a status report regarding the battle.

"Sir, the Joule Team is engaged in battle at Daedalus, facing heavy resistance, but making headway."

- "Is that so?" Durendal said rhetorically. "Then let us pray for their success. And what of the battle here?"

- "The same; we're seeing heavy resistance, and we haven't been able to get through to strike at the colony itself because of those reflector-equipped ships of theirs."

Durendal looked pensive for a moment. "I want you to release information about the battle to the public as it comes in - internationally; both in the PLANTs and on Earth." He said.

- "Sir? Aren't you worried that..."

- "No, I don't believe we have anything to worry about - this won't cause any panic." Durendal replied. "I'm sure the people want to know about their destiny...about what the future holds for them. And they have a right to know that, wouldn't you say?"

- "Yes, sir."

And so, the battle was broadcast to every single station in the PLANTs, and from there also on the networks on Earth.

At Daedalus, meanwhile the battle had begun in earnest, as the enemy forces began to engage the _Minerva_'s mobile suit teams. As the fastest of them, the Destiny and Legend were the first to engage the enemy forces, as Shinn fired the Destiny's rifle at the incoming Dagger formations, while Rey turned his attention on the rapidly-approaching Zamza-Zah, which fired its two frontal plasma cannons at the Legend.

Rey dodged the attack easily, then deployed the Legend's primary weapon: The DRAGOON System, an array of highly mobile, wirelessly-controlled remote weapons pods. The Legend possessed a total of sixteen of these, two mounted on its hips, eight on its wings, and six more on articulated binders on its back.

He first launched the six dorsal remotes, which fired their beam cannons at the Zamza-Zah, and the mobile armor engaged its positron reflector. However, the two remotes on the Legend's hip were designed specifically to counter beam shields and similar technology, and he deployed them as well. The two beam spikes pierced through the reflector and stabbed into the mobile armor itself. The reflector was deactivated, and the follow-up barrage from the other remotes eliminated it.

His target destroyed, Rey recalled and docked the eight remotes, then moved in towards his next target.

Athrun, meanwhile, arrived and linked up with them, and the three machines were engaging the enemy mobile suits even as the two Impulse Gundams secretly continued to approach the base. Shinn deployed the Destiny's "Megálos Kerberos" beam cannons and fired, cutting down two enemy mobile suits even as Athrun did likewise with the Knight Saviour's "Amfortas Kai" and "Hyper Fortis" cannons.

The _Minerva_ continued its bombardment of the base, while its CIWS intercepted a barrage of enemy missiles aimed at the ship. The _Alakhshya_, still cloaked, hung back per their strategy, their forces in reserve to support the Joule Team's attacks if needed.

Shinn and Athrun spotted the two Gells-Ghes closing in as well, attempting to move in towards the _Minerva._ They moved instantly.  
>While Rey used the Legend's DRAGOONs to cover them, the Knight Saviour and Destiny split up, each one targeting one of the two mobile armors.<p>

Shinn fired the Destiny's beam cannons and, predictably, the Gells-Ghe ignited its positron reflector, dodging the attack. He immediately docked the cannons, drew the two "Shining Edge" beam saber/boomerangs, and threw one, which slipped through the reflector and lodged itself into the Gells-Ghe's shoulder, disabling that reflector and the field, though the weapon was destroyed as a result. He immediately closed in and severed the torso from the main body. Then, drawing one of the two "Moralltach" beam swords, he bisected the mobile armor from front to back, killing its crew.  
>He caught and docked the second "Shining Edge", then withdrew.<p>

Athrun, meanwhile, likewise fired on the Gells-Ghe with his own machine's cannons, an attack that was also blocked. But before he had a chance to close in, the Destiny fired from the mobile armor's side, where its reflector could not protect it. The two powerful beam cannons tore the mobile armor apart.

Meanwhile, Lunamaria and Stella's two Impulse Gundams were closing in on their target: The cannon itself.

Suddenly, an alert rang as they detected an enemy mobile armor closing in fast. Stella turned, rifle drawn, to engage, even as Athrun's Knight Saviour closed in on their position.

But Lukas O'Donnell's Thales was too fast, and it shot past the Saviour even as he deployed his Gunbarrels, which surrounded the Impulse and fired their twin beam cannons. Stella blocked or evaded the attacks, then she fired, first with the beam rifle, then the "Fenris" shoulder beam cannons.

A positron reflector activated on the Gunbarrel she had targeted, and her attacks were deflected harmlessly. Lukas turned towards the Blast Impulse, locked on, and fired the Thales's "Zorn" multiphase beam cannon.

But this time Athrun's Saviour intervened, deploying the "Validus Fulgor" high-powered beam shield mounted on his machine's MMI-RGX46 Assault Shield - an earlier version of the MMI-RGX47 shield used by the Destiny, it differed slightly in the armaments it carried, but was just as effective. He counterattacked immediately, drawing the RQM-55E "Flash Edge II" beam boomerang stored in his shield, and launched it at the nearest Gunbarrel.

Lukas was ready, and fired on the boomerang with another one of the Gunbarrels, destroying it before he counterattacked with his machine's two powerful beam cannons, an attack which the Saviour again blocked. He accelerated the mobile armor and swept past his opponent, turning his attention back on the Storm Impulse. He noticed vaguely that its color was red instead of blue as it'd been in Hamburg, but dismissed it.

"Well kid, it's been fun. But now it's time to say good-bye!" He commented viciously as he again launched his Gunbarrels. This time, the Impulse was not able to entirely avoid the attack, and one shot sheared off its rifle arm. Then, the Gunbarrels moved in, igniting the "Horned Moon" beam blades, and converged on the Impulse, the goal being to tear it apart.

In the Storm Impulse's cockpit, Stella panicked. She couldn't beat this thing, it was too fast and too powerful. She was going to die, and...

"STELLA!" She heard suddenly over the communications link to the other mobile suits. "EJECT THE CORE SPLENDOR!"

She recognized Shinn's voice and instinctively she reached down and pulled the lever situated on the left side of her seat.

The Impulse seemed to come apart as its torso - Chest and Silhouette Flyer - shot upwards into the path of the incoming Gunbarrels, and the Impulse's cockpit block transformed into a tiny, blue-and-white fighter aircraft, which peeled off instantly. A split second later, the Chest and Storm Silhouette Flyers were cut to pieces by the Thales's attack.

In the cockpit of the Thales, Lukas saw with some surprise what happened even as his Gunbarrels sliced the Impulse to shreds, and he recognized the fighter as the same aircraft that kid had been piloting when he'd returned Stella to them. Stupid kid.

But then he realized that the pilot wasn't the kid - it was someone else, a girl. And as she glanced upwards through the clear canopy, even through the visor of the helmet, Lukas was shocked to recognize Stella.  
><em>'Stella? How...she's supposed to be dead!' <em>He thought. And yet here she was with ZAFT.

He didn't have time to wonder how the hell that had happened though, because suddenly, another mobile suit appeared, moving impossibly fast and beam saber drawn. Lukas barely had time to register the fact that it was a new model before it closed in and fired on the Thales.

He activated the starboard-side positron reflector, blocking the attack, then immediately turned and gunned his mobile armor towards the new attacker, firing the "Zorn" cannon and the beam guns at it. As he did so, he saw that it was the same new model that had been in the attack on Heaven's Base, and decided that he might as well destroy it.

Shinn Asuka's Destiny Gundam immediately slipped sideways as he ignited his "Validus Fulgor" beam shield, blocking the attack even as he shifted out of the Thales's line of fire.

"Athrun, cover the Core Splendor! Stella, you need to return to the Minerva!" he said. "I'll deal with this asshole."

- "Right!" Athrun acknowledged, then as the Core Splendor began to bug out, he followed, covering its retreat while Shinn kept his attention on the mobile armor.

Shinn keyed his communications to an open frequency, and established a link to the enemy mobile armor.  
>"Lukas O'Donnell." He said coldly. "I thought you were dead, you bastard."<p>

Shinn wasn't sure how he had guessed that it was O'Donnell; something about that mobile armor and its movements reminded him of the Chaos, though it was far larger and much faster.  
>And for all he knew, O'Donnell was dead - shot down in Hamburg. But it was him.<p>

- "Sorry to disappoint, kid." Lukas replied cynically. "But you always were a naïve little punk - that's a flaw of yours."  
>O'Donnell was only slightly surprised that the kid was the one piloting the new model, a fact that he quickly dismissed as irrelevant.<p>

- "I'm going to kill you." Shinn said just as coldly, even as he felt his awareness expand, as it had at times before - and especially at Heaven's Base.

- "Oh, I'd like to see you try!" Lukas retorted, and he deployed his Gunbarrels, then fired from each one even as he launched a volley from his mobile armor's M54 "Archer" missile launcher.

The Destiny's CIWS spun to life, cutting down the missiles before they were even halfway to the mobile suit, even as Shinn subtly shifted the controls and activated his beam shields, either dodging by millimeters or blocking the attacks.

Just like with the Destroy at Heaven's Base, he could almost see the trajectory of the remote weapons, almost as if he could somehow determine their movement a split second before they actually moved. It was tougher this time because the Gunbarrels were faster and there were more of them, compared to the Destroy's, and there were a few very close calls. But not a single attack connected. He counterattacked with a simultaneous strike from the beam rifle to one of the Gunbarrels and a volley from the beam cannons at the mobile armor itself, but was not surprised when positron reflectors activated to block his attack.

One of the Gunbarrels moved in towards him and fired, the shot actually clipping his rifle. He threw the now-useless weapon into its path just before it detonated and shifted laterally, then ignited the Voilure Lumière, accelerated and moved in towards the mobile armor, drawing his remaining "Shining Edge", igniting the saber blade, and aiming a low slash down at the mobile armor's underbelly.

Lukas flipped a switch, one of two articulated arms mounted underneath the mobile armor unfolded, and a pair of beam blades ignited. He parried the saber strike with the beam claw, then used his mobile armor's thrusters to pull away, before moving back in for an attack, firing the beam cannons at the little pest.

"How is it possible for that little bastard to be so fast?" He raged when the Destiny avoided his attack again.

Clearing the line of fire, Lukas again activated and deployed his four Gunbarrels, firing each of them in turn on the Destiny from multiple directions, then forward-deployed one of them, ignited its beam blades.

Shinn activated the Voilure Lumière again, then as the Destiny slid sideways ignited the "Solidus Fulgor" beam shield on his machine's right hand. The near blade glanced off the shield, then instantly Shinn deactivated the shield, flipped his hand, and fired the "Palma Fiocina" cannon into the Gunbarrel at point-blank range. The weapon pod exploded. Then, stowing his "Shining Edge", he drew the two "Moralltach" beam swords and activated them. When another one of the Gunbarrels fired at him, he evaded the attack, raised his left arm, and fired the "Grapple Stinger" anchor.

A positron reflector activated, but the anti-beam-coated anchor blades cut through it like a hot knife through butter, then buried themselves into the guts of the Gunbarrel. Shinn retracted the line just as the fatally stricken pod exploded.

"That's not fucking possible." Lukas swore as he saw this. He recalled the two remaining Gunbarrels, then charged in, firing every weapon he had - the Gunbarrels' four guns, his own mounted guns, and the "Zorn" cannon. The Destiny evaded the attack again, then slipped below his line of fire and struck, a sweeping, diagonal slash with one of those enormous beam blades.

Lukas deployed both the beam claws - one to parry the attack, a second to counter, but the Destiny broke off its attack, slipped back, and parried one claw with a drawn blade, then kicked the other one with its leg, the beam blade stretching from knee to foot on the Destiny's leg sliding just below the ignited claw and severing it. Then the Destiny severed the other beam claw with its sabers and prepared to fire, but Lukas again accelerated, evading the attack.

"I have had enough of this kid already." Lukas complained grimly. "Just what the hell is with him?"

But there was no stopping it, no evading this antagonist.  
>The Thales was the fastest mobile armor ever created. But while it may have been faster than any conventionally-powered mobile weapon in the world, the Destiny was faster still, and there was no matching its maneuverability.<p>

Lukas again deployed the two Gunbarrels, moving swiftly around the Destiny, both of them striking at it from the rear. The machine pivoted around, blocking the attacks as they came in. When one of the Gunbarrels accelerated towards him, beam blades engaged, he swung, carving it in half with the Moralltach before it even got near him.

This was the opening Lukas had been looking for, and even as he fired the twin beam cannons of the remaining Gunbarrel, he accelerated towards the Destiny from behind.

Shinn saw the mobile armor closing in on him from behind, undoubtedly preparing to fire. And he also saw the attack from the Gunbarrel. He threw the "Moralltach" beam sword in his left hand at the Gunbarrel and shifted the controls, the Destiny sliding downwards even as the Moralltach buried itself deep in the Gunbarrel, its long blade piercing through the weapon pod from front to back, and it exploded.

A split second later, Shinn ignited the "Beagalltach" blade mounted to his assault shield.

The attack from the mobile armor passed harmlessly overhead, and seconds later, so did the mobile armor itself. That's when he struck, with the Moralltach he still held in his right hand and the Beagalltach, and the attack severed the thruster unit mounted to each side of the front of the mobile armor, leaving it dead in the water and deprived of its positron reflectors.

Then he aimed a second strike from the Moralltach, which cut the mobile armor in half, before deploying the two "Megálos Kerberos" cannons and firing them, one 180mm cannon blasting each half of the mobile armor from near-point-blank range. The resulting explosion was tremendous, and when the smoke cleared, there was nothing left of Lukas O'Donnell or his machine but a scattering of small hunks of metal.

Shinn accelerated and moved upwards, linking up with the Legend as it remained engaged with the enemy machines.

"Good job, Shinn." Rey said, sounding visibly impressed at the brutal efficiency his old friend had just displayed.

Shinn replied with a nod, even as far behind them both, he saw the Knight Saviour and Storm Impulse returning. As the two machines had drawn near to the Minerva, with Athrun covering them, the Impulse had received a new Chest and Leg Flyer, as well as a replacement Storm Silhouette, and was now re-entering the fray.

The destruction of the Thales was not received well in the control room of Daedalus Base.

"What's our status?" Jibril demanded.

- "We're at 56% charge, sir." someone replied.

- "Damn it, we're dealing with just one ship, and barely a half-dozen mobile suits?" Shaw raged. "Why can't we take it out? Haven't the Destroys launched yet?"

From docking bays near the cannon, three dark gray GFAS-X1 Destroy mobile armors began to deploy. Two of them turned towards the Minerva, while the second turned to open fire on the ZAFT ships at the other side of the base, when suddenly two enormous beams of light lanced outwards, seemingly from nowhere, and obliterated one of the three.

- "WHAT? Where the hell did that attack come from?" Shaw raged.

- "Another ship detected, 11 o'clock, distance 150. It's a Niranjan-class, sir - the _Alakhshya_!"

- "Impossible!" Shaw retorted. "That ship was scrapped before it was even completed years ago!"

- "Evidently not." Jibril replied coldly.

Natarle Badgiruel, her ship's Mirage Colloid Stealth System deactivated, ordered her mobile suits to launch - four Hyperion-Gs, led by two new models: Sven Cal Bayan's GAT-X105E Strike Noir Gundam, and Mudie Holcroft's GAT-X1022 Blu Duel Gundam.

The two teams of three mobile suits shot forward, heading each towards one of two remaining Destroys, even as the four Windams and two Hyperion-Gs that made up the remainder of the ship's completement took up defensive positions around her and began to engage the enemy Daggers and Euclids that closed in.

Shinn, Rey, and Athrun converged on the six new Alliance mobile suits, and Athrun opened up a communications line with them. Meanwhile, Stella used the terrain mask to catch up to and resume her position covering the Blast Impulse.

"We have to take down those two mobile armors, or they're going to decimate our forces." He said.

- "I agree." Sven said. "Those are our orders: To eliminate them and anything else."

- "Fair enough." Athrun replied. "I'll go with you. Shinn, Rey, you two go with the Duel and the other two machines."

- "Right." Came the simultaneous reply from the two Gundams.

In the cockpit of the Blu Duel, Mudie did not reply despite her deep mistrust of Coordinators, mainly because either of those two machines looked like they could obliterate her own in seconds - she'd seen the Heaven's Base footage and footage from the Battle of Orb. And she'd been watching the battle here too, right up until they were ordered to sortie.

But there was another reason, too. And it had to do with that strange kid...

The two formations split up. With Athrun in the lead, Sven's Strike and accompanying Hyperion-Gs closed in on one of the two Destroy Gundams, while Shinn, Rey, and Mudie's team converged on the other. At that moment, the _Minerva_ fired its Tannhäuser into the base, but a Gells-Ghe moved in, deploying its positron reflector, and blocked the attack.

Mudie's team was closest.

"I'll deal with that one. Hyperion 5 and 6, follow me." She said viciously as she deployed her Duel's two beam pistols and fired on the Gells-Ghe from above. The mobile armor retreated and reactivated its positron reflector, blocking her attack, then countered, firing its two beam rifles.  
>The Blu Duel, having been designed for high-mobility, close-range ground combat, was a highly agile mobile suit, and Mudie thumbed the controls that activated a bank of thrusters on the machine's backpack, allowing her to avoid the attack easily.<p>

She counterattacked instantly, firing her machine's twin beam pistols at the enemy machine, followed up by a volley from the 115mm railgun that was mounted underneath her shield.

The Gells-Ghe redeployed its positron reflector, its crew confident that their barrier would deflect the attack, which it did.

Meanwhile the Hyperion-Gs were closing in as well. One of them fired its "Forfanterie" beam cannon and "Zastava Stigmate" beam submachine gun at the mobile armor, whose positron reflector was still active.

However, the "Forfanterie" beam cannon was designed to be able to fire through the Hyperion series's "Armure Lumière" mono-phase lightwave barrier, a defensive system that was a scaled-down version of the Umbrella of Artemis - and the same technology that was used to create the Positron Reflectors used by the Gells-Ghe and the other mobile armors. The beam cannon's shot tore through the barrier and obliterated the humanoid upper torso, taking with it two of the three reflectors, and the two rifles.

- "Now we've got you, you little fucker!" Mudie said with a kind of savage satisfaction, as she and the two Hyperion-Gs unleashed their weapons on the Gells-Ghe, obliterating it.

Meanwhile, Shinn and Rey were engaging the Destroy, which launched its two Gunbarrels.

"Heads up, Shinn!" Rey warned.

- "I see them." Shinn replied. To himself, he muttered. "Those things again. The bastards...they just never learn, do they?"

- "I'll cover you - you just move in and take it out!" Rey said over the comms as the two machines moved into position almost instantly.

- "Right!" Shinn replied.

He gunned the Destiny inwards, even as Rey deployed the Legend's DRAGOONs, the sixteen remotes firing a carefully-calculated barrage of beam cannonfire that surrounded the Destiny, preventing anything from getting anywhere near it. The approaching Gunbarrels ignited their positron reflectors, and Rey instantly retasked his two beam spike units to target the nearest one. The two weapons cut through the reflector and buried themselves deep in the gigantic weapons pod, cutting through it and withdrawing. As it exploded, the second one fired a barrage at the Legend, which blocked with its own beam shield, even as it ignited its own Voilure Lumière propulsion system and evaded a follow-up strike from the Destroy itself, which fired its "Nefertem" plasma guns at them.

At that moment, the Destiny moved in towards the Gunbarrel, its arm shot forward as if he wanted to grab it, and he fired a point-blank shot deep into the weapons pod from the "Palma Fiocina" beam cannon. The Gunbarrel exploded instantly.

"That takes care of those." Rey commented. "Now to take out the main body."

At that moment, the Destroy fired its main cannons, and Shinn deployed the more powerful "Validus Fulgor", while Rey, who lacked the same, slipped into position behind him. They blocked the attack, and Rey immediately redeployed his DRAGOONs, firing a barrage towards the Destroy, which activated its positron reflector. However, some of the DRAGOONs, which were attacking from above, behind, and to the side as well as the front, found their mark, and the two enormous dorsal cannons were destroyed.

Then Shinn pushed the Voilure Lumière to maximum output and accelerated the Destiny towards the Destroy, which fired its triple "Super Scylla" cannon. He dipped below its trajectory, his single Moralltach drawn, and drove it deep into the lowest section of the main body, just above the waist, where he knew the cockpit to be located. The long, powerful blade carved deep into the machine, exiting out the back, and then Shinn drew it out sideways, then pulled back slightly, deployed the two Megálos Kerberos cannons and fired them into its knees, toppling the giant mobile armor where it stood.

"One down." He said harshly, and there was no remorse in his voice, only an icy determination.

At the same time, Athrun and Sven led their two Hyperion-Gs against the second Destroy, which likewise launched its two Gunbarrels. One of the Hyperion-Gs was destroyed in the onslaught, but the second one, activating the "Armure Lumière" generator mounted to the tip of his beam cannon, blocked the attack, then countered, destroying the attacking Gunbarrel with the "Forfanterie" cannon.

Sven drew one of his machine's two "Fragarach III" anti-MS beam swords and, covered by the Saviour and remaining Hyperion-G, moved in on the Gunbarrel and drove the blade deep into the central upper section, where the positron reflector was located. That disabled, he drew one of his two "Shorty" beam rifles and fired, while the Saviour did the same, and the crossfire destroyed the second weapon pod.

Athrun then drew and activated his two beam sabers then accelerated, pushing the Saviour to its highest speed, slipping into the blind spot directly underneath and to the rear of the massive mobile armor, where none of its weapons could reach. He severed both knees, then pulled back at high speed as the mobile armor began to collapse. It fell to the ground, and above, Sven deployed the Strike Noir's twin linear guns and drew the two beam pistols that formed his machine's ranged armament, while the Hyperion-Gs deployed their "Forfanterie" beam cannons. All mobile suits fired simultaneously, even as Athrun added the combined firepower of the Knight Saviour's two beam rifles, "Hyper Fortis" beam cannons and "Amfortas Kai" plasma cannons, consummating the mobile armor's destruction.

In the cockpit of the Strke Noir, Sven looked dispassionately down at the carnage he and his teammates had wrought, before ordering the Hyperion-Gs to form up on the Strike Noir.

"Shinn!" Athrun contacted the Destiny. "Link up with the Impulses and cover them! Rey and I will handle it from here." He ordered.

- "Roger that." Shinn replied and he peeled off, as Rey's Legend, Mudie's Duel, and the remaining Hyperion-Gs linked up with Athrun and Sven's force.

The group then moved across the battlefield, where they engaged the forces still doing battle against the Hirschfelder's mobile suits and the two Joule Team ships, catching them in a pincer movement.

Sven's Strike and Mudie's Duel at the head of the formation, consisting primarily of the Hyperion-Gs, were first to open fire, while Athrun's Knight Saviour accelerated, rejoining with the Joule Team's other mobile suits. The enemy defensive line began to crumble under the combined assault.

In the control room at Daedalus Base, the tension was growing and some were starting to be afraid, as their three most powerful units were destroyed.

- "Requiem is at 61% charge." came the report. "Destroy Units 2 and 3 eliminated. And we're detecting two additional enemy mobile suits in sector 6!"

- "We've lost contact with the Eighth Mobile Group at Fauré!" announced another. "And the enemy has caught our main force in a pincer movement - our defensive line is falling!"

- "We're firing Requiem, now!" Jibril ordered. "We can't wait for full power, and 61% is more than enough to tear right through them."

- "Yes, sir." Shaw replied, and he issued orders accordingly.

Meanwhile at Fauré, a team of GOUF Ignited succeeded in getting past the enemy's line of defense and, using their machines' "Slayer Whip" heat rods, disable its positron reflector. Then they fired on the ship itself, destroying it.

With a gap in the colony's defenses finally opened, the Alliance and ZAFT ships opened fire directly at the colony, targeting the thrusters along that side and destroying them.

The result was that the colony slipped out of alignment, which was detected instantly at Daedalus.

- "Just fire it!" Jibril ordered. "At least we can eliminate the forces around Fauré."

- "But if we do that, sir...that's it; we'd never be able to charge it again in time to fire." Shaw protested.

- "I don't care. Fire it anyway." Jibril railed. Then added in an undertone. "We'll escape in the meantime."

- "I see. Fire one last shot as we surrender the base, and then slip away in the confusion. Like you did at Heaven's Base, sir?" Shaw replied.

- "As long as I am alive, there will always be a chance for victory." Jibril said, choosing to ignore the dig about Heaven's Base. "You and I will make our way to Arzachel, and then try again."

Meanwhile, the _Minerva_ and _Alakhshya_ fired their positron cannons into the base, leveling a fairly large section of it and skimming away that much more of the enemy defenses.

- "Come on!" Yzak railed. "Our Lunar Fleet's hanging tough - we're on the verge of winning this!"

- "The Saviour and the Legend have linked up with the _Hirschfelder_ and the other ships' mobile suit teams!" came the report from Abby. "The Destiny and Impulse Gundams are still closing in on the target!"

- "Good! Just a little longer, guys, and we've won!"

However, the Blast Impulse was facing heavy resistance from enemy mobile suits, and even a few of the new Euclid mobile armors, as well as a Gells-Ghe.

- "Come on!" Lunamaria railed as she blocked an attack, then fired a barrage from the Blast Impulse's missile launchers that took out several mobile suits.

Behind her, Stella's Storm Impulse did likewise, then using the "Caliburn" beam swords attacked the Gells-Ghe, cutting off both its arms, then finishing it off with a volley from the "Fenris" beam cannons.

At that moment, the Destiny moved in and opened fire, the attack catching both Euclids by surprise and destroying them before they had a chance to activate their positron reflectors.

"Shinn!" Lunamaria exclaimed as the Destiny linked up with the Storm Impulse.

- "Just keep going." He replied. "The access tunnel is up ahead - Stella and I will cover you."

At that moment, a Zamza-Zah closed in and opened fire on the two Impulse Gundams, which were forced to scatter to avoid the attack.

"BACK OFF!" Shinn roared. "That's enough out of you, you bastard."

As he spoke, he charged, the single Moralltach ignited and held straight in front of him as he accelerated full speed towards the Zamza-Zah. The mobile armor ignited its positron reflector, but the blade punched through it, burying itself deep in the mobile armor's main body, straight down its length. He pulled the blade upwards, incinerating the cockpit block and crew, and the mobile armor fell.

- "There it is!" Lunamaria said as she spotted her target, defended by a Gells-Ghe. She held her shield defensively in front of her, and the Storm Impulse slipped past, firing its weapons at the mobile armor, which ignited its positron reflector.

Taking advantage of the distraction, Lunamaria slipped into the access tunnel, as from above the Destiny fired on the Gells-Ghe, obliterating it with a salvo from its powerful beam cannons.

- "Come on, Stella! We'll take out the Base command center."

- "Right."

Their mission accomplished, the Destiny and Storm Impulse accelerated away from their target deeper into the base, where they linked up with Rey's Legend, while the Knight Saviour and the Alliance mobile suits continued to engage the enemy forces.

"Requiem operational charge is 63%. Power flow stable, force field formation confirmed." Came the report deep inside Daedalus's control center as the great barrel of the mighty weapon opened. "Detonation circuit S116, Breaker in effect. Capacitor T-5 online, capacity at 70%; Primary extractor is on standby. Seal disengaged, commencing countdown. Firing in T minus 35."

At that very moment, Lunamaria's Blast Impulse broke through into a point deep inside the base, near the very bottom of the barrel of the Requiem cannon.

She located the control room, deployed every one of the Blast Impulse's weapons, and opened fire directly at it.

At the same time, Shinn's Destiny entered the dock nearest the base command center, stowing his Moralltach and deploying his powerful beam cannons. He opened fire, systematically destroying every ship he saw, one after another. The succession of explosions triggered a chain reaction that spread through that sector of the base until it reached the control center, which exploded as well.

Shinn exited the dock and shot upwards, converging on Stella's Impulse and Rey's Legend when, suddenly, he heard a hail from Stella.

"Shinn! Over there!" She exclaimed as she recognized the _Nana Buluku_.

The Legend and Destiny both shot towards the distant vessel as it left from a separate dock, and Rey deployed his machine's DRAGOONs, firing a barrage that struck the ship's engine blocks, as well as targeting each "Gottfried" beam cannon emplacement and the two panels on the front sides of the bow where its positron cannons were stored.

The ship was left dead in the water and weaponless, except for its missile launchers. However before it could fire them, the Destiny closed in and Shinn saw, through the bridge window, two officers and one man in civilian attire.

"It's him - Jibril!" He exclaimed.

He drew the single "Moralltach" Anti-Ship Beam Saber, ignited it, and activated his Voilure Lumière, then charged the ship. The blade clove the bridge in two, incinerating every man there, including Jibril.

Then he fired a final attack from his own powerful beam cannons, deep into the bowels of the vessel. The attack detonated the missiles stored in their launch tubes in the ship, causing catastrophic damage to the hull, which split in half. The two halves of the stricken ship crashed onto the surface of the moon, where they exploded.  
>Of the ship's crew, there were no survivors.<p>

Shinn opened up a communication to the _Minerva_. "Enemy vessel destroyed. Jibril was confirmed to be onboard. He's dead."

The battle was over. With the base control center destroyed, and the bulk of the enemy force decimated, the few that remained surrendered.

Shinn, Athrun, Rey, Stella and Lunamaria returned to the Minerva, where they were met by thunderous applause from their shipmates. The ship had taken heavy damage from enemy attacks during the battle, but it was still in one piece, mobile, and by some miracle had had no serious injuries onboard. The Voltaire and Rousseau, which crossed the base to rejoin with the team flagship, were even more battered.

The Alliance mobile suits returned to the _Alakhshya_, and Captain Badgiruel announced that they would return to her homeport of Artemis, rather than Theophilus, for repairs.

Rey congratulated Shinn, but then said that he would return to the _Hirschfelder_, which was headed to rendezvous with the Lunar fleet as it returned from battle at the Relay Station, where the Alliance fleet had been annihilated.

"That sucks." Shinn said when he learned the news. "I was hoping you would stick around."

- "I think we'll be seeing each other again." Rey said. "Chairman Durendal has said to me that he intends for the Minerva to join with the lunar fleet."

- "That's all well and good." Yzak said. "But we took a hell of a beating during this one. I've been in touch with Chairman Durendal, and he's given me approval to proceed, along with the _Voltaire_ and Rousseau, to the PLANTs for repairs and resupply. We will link up with the fleet once those are completed."

- "Fair enough." Rey said, then he turned to Shinn. "I guess I'll see you then."

- "I can't wait." Shinn said, smiling warmly, and he embraced his best friend. The two parted, and Rey boarded his machine, which left to return to the _Hirschfelder_.

The _Alakhshya_ and her escorts had already left. And, as he returned to the bridge, and he opened up communications with the even-more battered _Voltaire_ and _Rousseau_, Yzak reflected that it was high time they were headed home, as the Joule Team set course for her flagship's home port.

Onboard the _Gondwana_, Durendal pondered the results of the battle. He was still waiting for a formal report from his two finest pilots, but as the ZAFT Lunar Orbital Fleet began to regroup and prepare to return to the moon, he knew that his immediate objective had been achieved. He leaned back in his great armchair, an enigmatic smile playing around the corners of his thin mouth as he contemplated this new shift in the state of world affairs, and what it meant for his objectives.

"Thank you, Teivel Jibril." He said aloud, though nobody could hear. Nor were they supposed to. "Good bye, and good riddance."

Now, he would soon be ready to make his final move. And then, the sorry state of affairs that had so long plagued this world would be at last ended.


	32. Phase 32: Prélude to Revolution

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** Hitherto, I have drawn a great deal of material for my work from the canon episodes of Seed Destiny, even in cases in which I was making significant changes. From this point forward however, though the general sequence of events will remain the same, the actual specifics of how those events unfold over the next four chapters are going to be drastically different. Hopefully, they are better, as was always my goal with this project. In my opinion, they are. The rest is up to you readers. So dive in, and enjoy!

* * *

><p><strong>PHASE 32: Prélude to Revolution<strong>

**November 20th, C.E. 75  
><strong>**Lunar orbit, above Daedalus Base  
><strong>**Mobile super-carrier _Gondwana_**

With the battle over, what little remained of the Atlantic Federation Space Forces at Daedalus had fled the base, mostly to Arzachel. With Daedalus abandoned, the returning ZAFT Lunar Orbital Fleet moved in and seized control of the base.

Onboard the flagship of the fleet, the giant super-carrier _Gondwana_, in his cavernous observation chamber located above and slightly aft of the ship's bridge, Chairman Durendal sat in a high-backed chair. An inscrutable expression on his face, he listened as the ship's CO delivered a report as to the condition of the fleet and the results of the battle.

"The losses to our own forces during the attack on the lunar base itself were minimal; other than the damage to the Joule Team ships and the loss of a couple of the Alliance supporting mobile suits, our forces made it out essentially intact. We estimate that no more than 30% of the defending forces were left at the end of the battle, all of which had withdrawn to Arzachel by the time this fleet arrived."

- "It's of little consequence." Durendal said confidently. "We can deal with the remnants later, when and if that becomes necessary."

- "Yes, sir." The captain replied. "Our losses in the relay station battle were somewhat more significant; we lost roughly one-third of our ships and approximately one hundred mobile suits. However, the enemy force was totally destroyed; no survivors. All told, sir, I would say that given the circumstances, we did extremely well."

- "Thank you, Captain." Durendal said. "And I agree - we could scarcely have done much better than we did, given the circumstances."

The officer nodded, then with a salute, left the room.

After some time, Heine Westenfluss, who had led the attacking mobile suit forces at the relay station, entered, freshly showered and dressed in a clean uniform. Trailing a couple of steps behind him was Rey Za Burrel, likewise dressed in uniform.

"Ah, yes. Heine, Rey." Durendal said by way of greeting. "I am glad to see you. You both did extremely well today."

"Thank you, Chairman." Rey said deferentially. "It's unfortunate, though, that Shinn and Athrun aren't here."

"Yes," Durendal acknowledged, "I was rather hoping the _Minerva_ would remain, but given that the ship took damage during the battle, it's understandable that Commander Joule would want to fall back for repairs." Durendal leaned back, a thoughtful expression on his face, then added slowly. "I do think Shinn performed admirably, and would have been a valuable addition to our forces here."

Both Heine and Rey noticed that Durendal had apparently omitted Athrun, but Rey dismissed it instantly; his Legend and Shinn's Destiny were a pair, like matched blades, and they belonged together. Athrun's Knight Saviour couldn't come close to comparing.

- "It is hard to say which of the two was more impressive; Shinn's Destiny or Rey's Legend." Heine commented. "But I suppose the two complement each other nicely, right?"

Durendal nodded. "They do indeed, Heine." The Chairman added. "And the two of them together are instruments that will help to bring about a permanent end to this war."

- "Isn't it over already, sir?" Heine inquired.

- "What do you think?" Durendal asked.

- "Well, the Alliance is pretty well routed on Earth - we've seen to that; and in space, what have they got left? A backwater base that nobody much cares about at L4, and Theophilus and Arzachel here on the moon." Heine said. "Since the Eurasian Federation controls Theophilus and Artemis, really all that's left is Arzachel."

- "Which is itself still a significant threat." Rey countered. "Arzachel alone is more than double the size of Daedalus. And while the Eurasian Federation and the PLANTs currently share a common enemy, we can't discount the possibility they may turn on us."

- "All very true, Rey." Durendal said. "As of right now, however, Heine is correct in that the only worrisome factor to remain is Arzachel."

Both officers nodded in acknowledgement, then Durendal continued.  
>"So then, things are not yet quite over." He said. "But soon, they will be. Then, our true destiny will become a reality, and there will never again be such a conflict."<p>

Rey and Heine nodded gravely, both of them in agreement with the Chairman's ideals. And both of them determined to help him bring them, and the lasting peace they promised, to fruition.

**LHM-BB01 _Minerva_**  
><strong>En route to the PLANT homeland<strong>

Even as the three battered ships were moving steadily towards home, the mood inside each one was of feverish activity. Whatever could be done internally to keep the ships in top shape was done, with the expectation that when they arrived, they would be able to get more complete repairs done.

For the crew of the _Minerva_, this was especially significant, since it would be the first time in its short but eventful life that the ship docked at the PLANT homeland. Many among the crew were looking forward to it, especially since most, if not all of them, had been stationed at Armory One, and had not back been to the PLANTs in nearly two years.  
>At the moment however, they had something else to occupy their minds, as a shuttle was heading to the <em>Minerva<em> from the _Voltaire_, carrying the ranking officers of those ships, both of whose names were legendary among the junior crew of the newer vessel.

When the shuttle landed on the hangar deck of the _Minerva_ and Dearka Elsman and Shiho Hahnenfuss disembarked, they found a small welcoming committee waiting for them, but all the same every head in the hangar turned towards them.  
>The two of them focused their attention however on the small group, and saluted. Yzak, Athrun, and Arthur Trine, the <em>Minerva'<em>s XO.

"Shiho Hahnenfuss and Dearka Elsman of the Joule Team, requesting permission to board." Shiho announced formally.

- "Granted." Yzak said just as formally, though Dearka and Athrun, both of whom had known the choleric Yzak for years, discerned just a hint of amusement in his otherwise neutral expression. "Welcome aboard." Yzak went on to briefly introduce the others, and Dearka and Shiho nodded, then moved forward.

The relationship between Yzak and Shiho was an open secret among the crew of the _Voltaire_ and the _Rousseau_. Once comrades in the Le Creuset Team, then later the first incarnation of the Joule Team in the Second Battle of Jachin Due, the intervening years had seen them become much closer, though both of them had made an effort to hide it. Everyone guessed anyway, but nobody ever talked about it - mainly because to do so risked the ire of the famously volatile-tempered Yzak.

But as the group of officers headed towards the exit, a few sharp-eyed crewmen caught a brief glimpse the two shared, and guessed at it as well. However, they wisely kept their mouths shut.

Yzak, Athrun, Dearka and Shiho entered the ship's rec room, where they found a small number of the other pilots already present. Arthur, at Yzak's orders, had returned to the bridge to take the conn, and the group sat down.

"Right," Yzak said, addressing his pilots. "Everyone listening? These are Dearka Elsman and Shiho Hahnenfuss, from the _Voltaire_."

Then, he turned to Dearka and Shiho. "These are a couple of my pilots that you might not've met. This is Lunamaria Hawke, who pilots the Blast Impulse Gundam; previously piloted a Gunner ZAKU Warrior."

- "Nice." Dearka commented as he returned Lunamaria's salute. "I still pilot one myself - helluva machine, isn't it?"

- "Yes, sir!" Lunamaria agreed. "It's an honor meeting you both." She added, looking from Dearka to Shiho. The latter, however, glanced from Lunamaria to a dark-haired young man who sat a little further down, next to a wispy, wary-looking young blonde in a green uniform.

Yzak saw where she was looking.

- "The young man sulking over there is Shinn Asuka, who was the Impulse's previous pilot." He said. Shinn saluted wordlessly. "He now pilots the Destiny Gundam."

Shiho nodded, impressed.

- "One of the very newest machine off our assembly lines. Not bad." She commented.

- "Thank you, ma'am." Shinn replied.

- "And who's that, your girlfriend?" Dearka asked Shinn, grinning. Shinn glared at the older man for a moment, but his expression turned back to neutral._ 'Well, that struck a nerve.'_ Dearka thought.

"You'll have to excuse Dearka, Shinn." Shiho commented. "He has a tendency to run his mouth off when he shouldn't."

- "Like someone else I know." Yzak growled, looking pointedly at Shinn, who shrugged, the corners of his mouth upturned in a small smile.

- "He's right, though, in this case." Shinn said, surprising everyone. "This is Stella Loussier. She pilots the Storm Impulse Gundam."

- "Hang on!" Dearka interrupted. "When we fought together back during the Break the World Incident, you guys fielded only one Impulse Gundam. But now you have two?"

- "That was my idea." Athrun replied. "We'd always had a spare Core Splendor, so when the ship was last at Gibraltar, Shinn helped me get a second Impulse unit up and running using it and some of the spare parts we had onboard."

"Athrun and I used the two of them for training at first, but then we got the Knight Saviour and the Destiny. So with two Impulse Gundams, Luna was reassigned to Unit 1, and Stella was assigned to Unit 2."

- "That was around the time of Operation Ragnarok, wasn't it?" Shiho asked, looking at Shinn.

- "Yes, ma'am." Shinn replied cautiously, wary of where the senior officer's line of questioning might be going.

- "And what did Stella pilot previously?" Shiho then asked.

- "She was actually new to the ship." Athrun replied cautiously. "She was assigned to the _Minerva_ around that time."  
>Shiho was sharp enough to spot a dodge when she heard one. However, she declined to press the issue. If it came to that, she would ask Shinn directly later.<p>

- "Right." Yzak interrupted. "Now that introductions are done with, let's get down to serious business, shall we?"

Athrun was the first to speak at that moment.  
>- "Right now, the Alliance is split; the Eurasian Federation controls Artemis and Theophilus; the Atlantic Federation has just lost Daedalus, so all they have left in space is Arzachel." He started to say. "Meanwhile, ZAFT controls Daedalus. So the question now is, what will the Atlantic Federation's next move be?"<p>

- "The way I see it, there's two options: They may try to retake Daedalus; or they might try for another hit at the PLANTs directly." Dearka commented.

- "I don't agree." Yzak replied. "Not without first retaking either Daedalus or Theophilus. Otherwise they'd just be leaving themselves open to attack from behind."

- "The thing is," Shiho then said, "Arzachel is by far the largest military installation in space, certainly on the moon. But I don't think they have the manpower to take Daedalus or Theophilus and still be able to attack the PLANTs."

- "I think Shiho's right." Athrun commented pensively. "I think it is much more likely that President Copeland will try to mend the fence with the Eurasian Federation before making any other move in space."

- "Good luck with that." Shinn snorted derisively. "After the Destroy incident, I can't see President Baum being too eager to get too friendly with the Atlantic Federation again."

There was a few seconds' silence as everyone present recalled the gigantic mobile armor that had carved a bloody path of destruction across Eurasia several months earlier, made slightly more awkward by the presence in the room with them of Stella, who had been the mobile armor's pilot.  
>But she said nothing, only shifted uncomfortably before relaxing at a reassuring glance from Shinn. Neither Shiho nor Dearka knew the truth of this matter, and by common, unspoken consent, neither Yzak nor Athrun said a word about it.<p>

Stella was one of their own now.

- "I think," Athrun said contemplatively, "That Copeland is probably not at fault here, though. I know the _Bonaparte_ was an Atlantic Federation land battleship in classification, and the Destroy is definitely an Atlantic Federation mobile armor. But I think it was a Logos operation, rather."

- "You mean, Copeland may pass the buck to Jibril?" Dearka asked sarcastically. "Typically political, huh?"

- "Honestly, Dearka, are you really that dim?" Yzak asked impatiently, but both men knew he was half-kidding. "What Athrun means is that Copeland was basically Jibril's lackey, so it's likely that Jibril himself ordered the Destroy launched, and Copeland had nothing to do with it. He was basically a Logos puppet anyway."

- "Right. And now with the strings cut and the puppet-master dead, what's he going to do?" Athrun commented. "Look at Orb, for instance."

- "Orb?" Shinn asked. "What about it?"

- "Remember that the Seirans were both killed in Operation Fury." Athrun recalled. Shinn and Yzak both smirked, and Athrun continued. "Since then, the entire house of cards they'd built has crumbled, and their allies have either been driven from office, or switched sides - and that was even before we finally got Jibril."

- "Though Shinn gets credit for finally being the one to nail the bastard." Dearka commented.

- "Isn't a lot of that because Representative Athha's been very proactive about excising them in the first place?" Shiho asked.

- "Yeah." Shinn replied, again surprising Athrun. "Just like Baum in Eurasia."  
>As Athrun listened, he pondered those words, and he was glad to see that she had really followed in her father's footsteps and become the kind of Leader Uzumi Nara Athha had been; the lion's cub had grown into a fierce lioness in her own right, he thought in a rare poetic moment. Meanwhile, he was still stuck as a soldier of ZAFT. <em>'Just like Lacus said, years ago.'<em> He thought with a pang of regret, as the memory brought back recollections of what he'd heard from Kira.

- "Absolutely, Shinn." Athrun finally said. "And I think that Baum is going to push Copeland to make similar reforms as part of any peace agreement between them."

- "Then I guess that's pretty much the end of that." Dearka commented.

- "I sure hope so." Athrun said. "But I'm not entirely sure it's over just yet."

**Orb Union**  
><strong>Office of the Chief Representative<strong>

"So, Jibril is dead? You're sure of this?" Cagalli Yula Athha asked, looking up from the report she was reading to stare across her office at the tall, elegant older woman who served as her military Commander.

- "Absolutely, Lady Cagalli." Rondo Mina Sahaku replied. "He attempted to escape using a Niranjan-class assault carrier, which was intercepted by ZAFT before it had time to escape. I'm told the ZAFT pilot who destroyed the ship had visual confirmation of Jibril's presence on the ship's bridge before he attacked it."

Cagalli slumped back against her chair and let out a sigh of relief. Jibril dead, and between the Eurasian Federation and the PLANTs, plus with the USSA siding against them, the Atlantic Federation backed into a corner, with Logos essentially annihilated.

It seemed like everything was finally coming to an end. And yet...

- "What about that weapon? Has it been destroyed?"

- "The Requiem weapon, milady?" Mina asked, and Cagalli nodded. "As I understand it, the Joule Team destroyed the base command center, including the weapon's control systems. So it can no longer be fired."

Cagalli shook her head.  
>- "What about those colonies? The relay points it used? Have they been destroyed?" She insisted.<p>

Mina hesitated, as she was starting to see where Cagalli was going.  
>- "As I understand it, two have been destroyed; one immediately after the first shot, the second during the battle."<p>

- "So four remain." Cagalli replied. "Meaning that theoretically, the thing could be brought back online."

Cagalli stood and stepped away from her desk, towards the enormous bay window behind her.

- "I imagine that Durendal will prioritize the complete destruction of that weapon. Or at least, so I hope." she continued to say. "Because I think that as long as that thing exists, this isn't over. Not yet."

**December 7th, C.E. 75**  
><strong>PLANT<strong>  
><strong>Aprilius One<strong>

Several weeks passed, while reparations were made to all three ships - the _Minerva, Voltaire_, and _Rousseau_. The ships were all also resupplied, as were their mobile suits.

Shinn Asuka and Athrun Zala stood together on the deck, watching the continued activity around them, though as the repairs neared completion it wasn't as feverish as it had been.  
>Athrun glanced across the base, where he saw an assortment of Nazca-class vessels that were similarly undergoing refit.<p>

- "Been a quiet couple of weeks, hasn't it?" Shinn asked.

- "Yeah, that it has." Athrun replied. Although the crew had been granted shore leave during this brief furlough, neither man had left the base much; having no family in the PLANTs, there was really no place for either of them. Athrun had briefly gone to visit the graves of Nichol, Rusty and Miguel. Yzak and Dearka had gone with him.

- Shinn had stayed at the base, alone or with Stella.

- "I've heard President Copeland has been in talks with President Baum, over the past few weeks." Athrun said. "He's made moves towards mending things with Orb, as well."

- "So we were right." Shinn commented, recalling their conversation a few weeks earlier.

- "I guess we were. Copeland and Baum are meeting at Arzachel, so before long we should know something concrete." Athrun agreed. "Remains to be seen what their next move will be relative to us here in the PLANTs."

At that moment, Athrun saw Yzak walking towards them, looking serious. Behind him was an officer they did not know, in lavender garb, which Athrun recognized as being used only by high-ranking flag officers or by personnel attached to the Supreme Council.  
>Athrun and Shinn both stood at attention and saluted. Yzak returned the salute, as did the other officer, who then spoke.<p>

"I have here special orders from the PLANT Supreme Council for FAITH Special Forces operative Athrun Zala, currently attached to the assault carrier LHM-BB01 _Minerva_."

- "That's me." Athrun replied unnecessarily. The other man knew exactly who he was.

- "Here you are, sir." he said, and he left without another word after handing to Athrun a leather-bound folio.

Athrun opened the folio and withdrew a single-page document. Then he gasped.

- "So, what is it?" Yzak asked irritably.

- "It looks like you're going to need to find someone else to command the _Minerva_'s mobile suit team." Athrun said, and handed over the document to Yzak.

- "Personal for Athrun Zala, FAITH Special Forces, Combat Patrol commander LHM-BB01 _Minerva_. You are hereby ordered to report to the Nazca-class destroyer Argenteuil for duty as its Commanding Officer, effective immediately." Yzak continued to read the document to its end, then looked up irritably, trying hard not to smile. "Congratulations, Commander Zala. Guess you're going to need to get your stuff off my ship. And you're gonna need a new uniform." He said.

He handed over the document to Athrun. And then he did smile, as did Athrun. And the two men shook hands in a way only old friends could.

**Atlantic Federation**  
><strong>Space Forces Main Base<strong>  
><strong>Arzachel Crater<strong>

Though it was called "Arzachel Base", the enormous facility that served as the headquarters of the Atlantic Federation Space Forces was spread across two craters on the moon - the 96-kilometer-wide Arzachel crater itself, and the 119-kilometer Alphonsus crater to the north.

The base was even larger than that which it had replaced, the enormous base located in the 153-kilometer-wide Ptolemaus crater that had been destroyed during the Second Battle of Jachin Due in CE. 71. It was the single largest military installation on the moon, and one of the largest bases anywhere in the Earth Sphere.

As he arrived at the base, President Baum was skeptical of Copeland's choice of venue for peace negotiations, but accepted that the beleaguered President of the Atlantic Federation had wanted the meeting to occur on his own turf. It did not mean that Baum, who was older and more experienced than Copeland in any case, would allow his opposite number to dictate the terms of the meeting.

Still, the diplomatic exchanges that had gone on these past few weeks between their two nations left Baum optimistic that an amiable solution could be negotiated. Once that was done, the matter of a long-term peaceable solution with the PLANTs could be handled.

- "I'll have to ask Brennan to bring Representative Athha of Orb onboard at that point." Baum mused, remembering the spunky young leader of Orb, and correctly guessing that she would have little trouble twisting the arm of a coward like Copeland - both politically and literally.

In Arzachel's command center, Copeland was fidgeting as the shuttle came in.  
>Everything seemed to be going well, but suddenly, an alert rang out.<p>

"Sir, we're detecting a high-level energy signature incoming!" One of the officers reported.

Standing next to Copeland, the base commander turned towards him.

- "What? Where's it coming from?" He demanded. The young officer opened his mouth to reply, but it was too late. A massive beam of energy struck Arzachel head on, and the resulting explosion ripped through the base. Copeland, the entire base command staff, and the shuttle carrying President Baum were all incinerated in seconds.

News of the attack soon reached the PLANTs. At Aprilius One, Athrun Zala, immaculately dressed in a new, white uniform, stood on the bridge of his new command, the Nazca-class _Argenteuil_, and was supervising the loading of mobile suits onboard including the transfer of his own Knight Saviour Gundam from the _Minerva_.

He hadn't been on the ship for long, but had made it a point to get to know as much of his crew as possible. His Executive Officer, a veteran officer named Kurt Gunn, had been the first he met, and he had introduced the new CO to the rest of the bridge crew; Jo Crocker, at the helm; the CIC, communications, weapons control officers, Aaron Web, Rick Burnett, and Ari Gavron; and the older Ray "Buster" Conway, who was the ship's MS Team Commander.

He had also taken time to meet with Zack Freeburg and Arnie Bergstrom, the commanders of the _Jouvenel_ and the Laurasia-class _Gaensler_.

But now, Rick Burnett suddenly reported that they were receiving an emergency message direct from Headquarters. "Receiving reports that Arzachel Base attacked and destroyed by long-range tactical beam weapon. Very strong chance Presidents Baum and Copeland were both killed."

Athrun went deathly pale as he heard the message. A sudden dread rose in him, and even as he asked the question, he was afraid he knew the answer.  
>- "What was the origin of the attack?" he asked. "Does the message say where the attack came from?"<p>

- "Yes, sir." Rick replied slowly. "The far side of the moon."

- "Daedalus." Athrun said somberly, and he swore under his breath; if an attack from Daedalus had leveled Arzachel, that meant that the Requiem cannon was back online. And there was only one possible conclusion, because there was only one man who could possibly have, over the past few weeks, ordered the repair of the cannon's control systems.

_'Durendal.'_ Athrun seethed internally, as he realized now that for months, the Chairman had played them all for fools.

**Orb Union**

In the aftermath of Daedalus's attack on Arzachel, Cagalli had immediately called Paris, despite the appalling hour of the morning there. She knew Vice-President Marshall was there, and she asked to speak with him. The conversation lasted twenty minutes, after which Cagalli immediately contacted Kaguya.

The _Kusanagi_ had been prepared and standing by, and she knew it could be launched within the hour. She gave the order, then made one other phone call.

An hour later, the ship's central module, equipped with its frontal atmospheric exit unit, was loaded onto the kilometer-long electromagnetic rail of the Mass Driver.

The crew was onboard and making sure everything was ready for the final time.

Inside the ship's cavernous hangar, a full complement of sixteen mobile suits was loaded, along with ammunition and spare parts. The ship would be more crowded than usual because in addition to its own crew and mobile suit, it carried Cagalli's Akatsuki and the three Murasames of the Kinshu Team, which would be transferred to the _Izumo_ once they arrived. It also carried crew for the recently completed Susanoo and Tsukiyomi, which would be launched for the first time in this battle.

A small group of people stood in the spaceport's enormous launch facility, clustered at the bottom of the gangway that led up towards the door to the ship.

Cagalli Yula Athha glanced up at the massive vessel and sighed. Then she turned towards the group and addressed the tall, elegant woman who stood at the forefront.  
>"Mina, I'm leaving everything to you while I'm gone." She said. "Coordinate with Representatives Yano and Himura on the Council."<p>

- "Of course, Lady Cagalli." Rondo Mina Sahaku replied deferentially.

Cagalli nodded, as did the two members of the Council of Emirs who stood with her. Representative Hideki Yano and Saito Himura, two of the scant few who had supported her implicitly and without reservations over the past four years, even in opposition of the late ex-Prime Minister, Unato Ema Seiran. After the Battle of Orb, the Council had by unanimous consent appointed Representative Yano to replace Seiran.  
>Cagalli could leave confident that her country was in good hands. The hulking figure of Colonel Ledonir Kisaka, the <em>Kusanagi<em>'s commanding officer and her own personal bodyguard since Athrun had left, detached itself from the group.

- "Cagalli, it's time." He said. "We need to get onboard."

- "Go. I'll be right there." Cagalli said firmly.

Kisaka nodded, and stepped up the gangway. Cagalli then turned away from the politicians towards the three civilians who stood some distance away. Two adults, a man and a woman, stood in the forefront, around a wheelchair. The expression of concern on the chair's occupant was mirrored on that of the two adults who stood around him.

"Take care of him. Please." She said, fighting to keep her voice even.

- "Of course." The woman replied.

- "You be careful up there, Cagalli. You hear?" said the wheelchair's occupant with a wry sort of smile. "I'm not gonna be there to get you out of trouble."

- "Like I'd need your help!" Cagalli retorted shortly, and he smiled. She smiled too, albeit uneasily.

- "Tell Canard and the others I said hi." He said, and she heard the regret in his tone. He wanted to be there, to go up there with them. But he couldn't.

- "Sure thing." She replied, then she turned and stepped up the gangway. As she reached the top, she stopped and turned around. "I'll see you all when I get back!"  
>Then, she stepped through the door, which closed behind her. She reached her seat, sat down. Soon afterwards, the Kusanagi was launched, headed towards space.<p>

The trip into orbit was uneventful, and as soon as the Kusanagi reached orbit, it found its sister ship, the jet-black _Izumo_, waiting. The ship also found waiting hull modules B and C, the ship's combat modules.

"Hull B, Distance 210. Hull C, Distance 220." said one of the bridge crew as the two modules were detected, even as the ship ejected its transport module and shifted into a position between the two modules. "Rendezvous point clear, ready for docking."

- "Right. Begin." Colonel Ledonir Kisaka ordered.

- "Commencing docking." The crew reported, as the docking began. The entire procedure took a short time. Upon its completion, the two Izumo-class vessels set a course for the geosynchronous space station Ame-no-Mihashira, where the last two ships of the fleet were waiting - the _Susanoo_, and _Tsukiyomi_. Then, the four-ship Orb fleet would deploy, heading into the Debris Belt on their way to their ultimate destination: The moon.

**PLANT Homeland**  
><strong>Aprilius One<strong>

Throughout the PLANTs, fear and confusion began to grow as news of the attack spread. The situation was made worse when Acting-President Brennan Marshall of the Eurasian Federation, flanked by Jameson Rodgers, his opposite number in the Atlantic Federation, suddenly made a broadcast televised worldwide, in which he condemned the attack.

"I do not know," he said, "Why the PLANTs have decided to turn on the Eurasian Federation after supporting us for so long. But I do know that this unprovoked aggression will not be allowed to stand. And that the Earth Alliance will eliminate this threat to the peace of all nations, by any means necessary, including the use of force."  
>Facing once again the threat of attack, the civilian population of the PLANTs panicked, as many wondered what would happen. Then, on every screen in the PLANTs, the familiar, beautiful face of Lacus Clyne appeared, and she began to speak.<p>

"Everyone, please listen to me." She began her impassioned plea, as she had many times before. "I know that you are all frightened. The same weapon that was used against us, which we thought to have been destroyed, has been used once again, and once more the PLANTs are threatened. But do not be afraid; We all want this horrible war to end, and to live once again in peace. And I am sure that the Supreme Council, and our courageous soldiers of ZAFT, will do everything in their power to ensure that this dream that we all share becomes a reality."

She closed her eyes, and to everyone watching, seemed to be praying.

Athrun, as he watched the broadcast from his quarters on the Argenteuil, saw that she wore a short, elegant black kimono-like garment, with high, detached sleeves, and over that a white-and-lavender overcoat; it was a formal outfit, very different from the revealing outfits she had previously worn; in fact, he remembered Lacus wearing a nearly identical outfit in the final months of the first war. Moreover, her hair was styled in a similar high ponytail. Watching, he thought that she would begin to sing.

But she did not.

She took a deep breath, and then Meer Campbell raised her head and opened her eyes. She reached up behind her and untied the ribbon, and her long hair fell cascading down her back and over her shoulders. And then she began to speak again, and instead of hope and comfort, her words brought confusion to many who listened.

"Everyone, I know how much you have all looked to me for guidance, and I am thankful for all the kindness that you have all shown. But if there is one thing that I value almost as much as I do my dream, that all of us should live in peace, it is the truth. And the truth is something that has been withheld from you all for far too long."

She hesitated for a moment, and then spoke two sentences that changed everything.

"I am not who you think I am. I am not Lacus Clyne."


	33. Phase 33: Revelations

AUTHOR'S** NOTE:** Whew. Well, on the heels of last Chapter's cliffhanger, here is the continuation. I hope you enjoy it.

Shinn himself unfortunately features little in the Chapter, as the focus is mostly on other characters. Don't worry though, he's still the main character.

* * *

><p><strong>PHASE 33: Revelations<strong>

**December 7th, C.E. 75  
><strong>**PLANT Homeland  
><strong>**Aprilius One**

In the PLANTs, the report of the destruction of Arzachel reached the office of Ezalia Joule at Aprilius One less than an hour after the attack. Within minutes, she had placed two phone calls. One to call an emergency session of the Supreme Council an hour hence. A second to a private number.

An hour later, Ezalia Joule and two members of her staff, along with Diplomatic Committee Chairwoman Eileen Canaver, entered the great hall in which the Supreme Council normally met together, and took their customary seats. Only one chair stood empty - that normally occupied by Durendal.

Orson White, of the Administrative Committee, spoke first.

"Chairwoman Joule, I must say that to call a meeting of the Council in the Chairman's absence is highly irregular." He began. "Has he been apprised of the situation?"

- "Chairman Durendal is perfectly aware of the situation, Orson." Ezalia said in a brusque tone. "After all, he is the one who instigated it."

White and several others opened their mouths to speak, but Eileen Canaver stood authoritatively and the entire group fell silent.  
>- "Chairwoman Ezalia Joule," she said. "You called for this meeting of the Supreme Council. Please explain these allegations."<p>

- "Gladly." Ezalia replied. "To begin with, as I am sure you are all aware, one hour and twenty-two minutes ago Arzachel was attacked by a long-range tactical beam weapon. It's still early and we don't have firm data yet, but our initial estimates are that between 60 and 80% of the base has been destroyed. We also have strong reason to believe that both President Copeland of the Atlantic Federation, and President Baum of the Eurasian Federation have been killed in the attack."

A stunned silence greeted this pronouncement, though many of them were aware that something had happened, and whispers were beginning to reach even the general populace of the PLANTs. Ezalia continued to speak.  
>"The calculations made by the National Defense Committee, and corroborated by several observation posts, are that the attack originated from the far side of the moon, curving around two waypoints before striking Arzachel crater directly."<p>

- "Ezalia," Parnel Jesek suddenly said, "You cannot be implying that..."

- "No, I am not. I am stating it as fact; the attack originated from Daedalus Base, which is currently controlled by ZAFT's Lunar Orbital Fleet, led by the _Gondwana_."

- "You mean, that it was ordered by Chairman Durendal." Eileen Canaver said.

- "Indubitably so." Ezalia agreed. "But there is much more to it, I am afraid; Chairman Durendal's duplicity runs back even to the beginning of this war."

- "How so?" Jesek asked.

And Ezalia Joule opened her briefcase and displayed several packets of information, information that she had spent months gathering, including intelligence she had obtained through the Joule Team, revealing the extent of Durendal's deception. First and most shocking of all, the truth about Lacus Clyne.

- "Given all of this, it can be held as factual that whatever the goal of Gilbert Durendal, it is not the peace that he has so often told us he held so dear." Ezalia Joule said. "And in light of this, there is in my view but one course of action that we may take."

- "And what course of action is that?" Orson White asked. And Ezalia told him. There were rumblings of protest, but then Eileen Canaver stood.

- "You and I may have had our differences over the years." She said. "But I have one question: How certain are you of all of this?"

"Absolutely certain. I have spent months ensuring that every single thing that I have told you here is 100% correct."

- "In that event then, Ezalia Joule, you may count on my full support." Eileen Canaver said. Whatever protests there may have been died then and there. When the motion was brought to a vote among the present members of the Supreme Council, it was carried by unanimity.

Ten minutes later, the broadcast began.

**Lunar orbit, above Daedalus Base**  
><strong>Mobile super-carrier <em>Gondwana<em>**

"Now then," Gilbert Durendal mused to nobody in particular, "What will your response be, I wonder."

It had taken him far less time to reach this point than he had hoped - Jibril, in his fanatical desire to eradicate the Coordinators, had provided him with a tool he had not been counting on, not unless he had been able to construct it himself - and in fact, had already begun making plans to do so. Now he would not need to.

Finding and supplying the remnant forces still loyal to that misguided fanatic Patrick Zala had been easy enough - predictably, they used the resources they were able to glean through the black market to begin a ploy intended at avenging their perceived wrongs and promoting the genocidal ambitions of their late leader. One or two "lost" shipments of old mobile suits bound for the scrap heap, the occasional newer model, and some supplies was all it took.

The Atlantic Federation's swift nuclear response was equally predictable, and the relevant arrangements had been in place since the development of the Neutron Stampeder. The test proved conclusive.  
>After that it was a matter of eradicating Logos in order to strip the Alliance of its capability to manufacture new weapons, as well as to decapitate the organization that pulled the Atlantic Federation's strings.<p>

From the beginning, he knew one of the biggest threats he would face would be the _Archangel_ and the Freedom, and especially Lacus Clyne. Finding her in Orb took some doing, but once he had, he sent in a team, under cover of darkness, to assassinate her and Kira Yamato.  
>They were only half successful, which was unfortunate. But without Lacus Clyne, her followers were a minor threat, soon dealt with.<p>

He had been hoping to use Athrun, but far from being malleable to his designs, Athrun became suspicious. So he attempted to arrange the veteran's death at the hands of his erstwhile best friend by ordering the Saviour sabotaged.  
>Athrun survived, but he was no longer a threat. Although that new machine he was supplied with was a surprise, since then he had shown no inclination to follow up on his earlier doubts, and the permanent removal of both the <em>Archangel<em> and the Freedom in Eurasia resolved that issue in any case.

"Patrick, Rau." Durendal commented to the empty wrong. "You were both wrong. It's not necessary to eradicate your enemy; not as long as you make sure they are incapable of striking back at you."  
>And depending on how things played out over the next few days, he would see how the cards fell. With Requiem, he had the ability to eliminate any military installation, nearly anywhere on Earth or the Moon. He was in a position, if need be, to achieve near-total military supremacy over the Earth Sphere.<p>

"That's one way to guarantee peace; make sure that nobody can ever mount an attack by destroying their ability to do so." He thought. "But we shall see..."

What his next move was would depend on...

- "Chairman Durendal." Came a sudden communication from the _Gondwana_'s bridge.

- "Yes?"

- "There is a broadcast being made from Aprilius One that I think you should see, sir."

- "From the homeland?" Durendal asked, puzzled.  
>He knew that Marshall and his allies on Earth were already rattling their swords, but he was surprised to hear that something was coming from the PLANTs so rapidly.<p>

- "Yes, sir."

- "Put it through. But make sure it is trasmitted _only _to me here."

- "Yes, sir." The officer replied.

Durendal wasn't sure what he had been expecting, but what he saw certainly was not it.  
>To use an actress to impersonate Lacus Clyne had been another of his best ideas, in retrospect. That he was able to find a young woman who not only was the right age, but whose voice was identical to that of Lacus had been perfect - only minimal surgical alterations and the work of the best voice-coach in the PLANTs had sufficed to create a perfect doppelgänger.<p>

But he was surprised to see her broadcasting, especially as he had not issued any orders to make such a transmission.  
>The broadcast had been on for a couple of minutes already, so he missed its beginning - though he made certain that it was transmitted directly to him, and broadcast nowhere else throughout the ship or the lunar fleet. However, the words he did hear spoken next shocked even him.<p>

"I am not Lacus Clyne."

Durendal stared in blank shock at the screen as he heard her words. Of all the possibilities he had considered, this was one he had never expected.  
>Meer had been perhaps one of, if not the most useful tool at his disposal simply due to her ability to so perfectly impersonate Lacus Clyne, and had proven invaluable in her tremendous influence over the population of the PLANTs. Moreover, she had genuinely admired Lacus herself, and respected her beyond all others - which had made her easy to manipulate.<p>

Thus her influence, and the power to influence the populace that came with it, had been invaluable to him.

And she was now turning that influence against him. It could not, he thought, be something she had done of her own volition. He was trying to divine who could have convinced her to throw away everything that she had done, under his guidance since the deception began, over a year ago.

The broadcast caused mass confusion throughout the PLANTs, as the news of the months-long deception angered many who had trusted and believed in the words of the one they thought to be the daughter of the late Siegel Clyne, the same young woman who had helped to end the climate of fear that had marked the waning months of the Bloody Valentine War.

Now learning that she was a fake, many were unsure of what to do. Nonetheless, many continued to listen as the impostor continued to speak.

"During the events of the last War, Lacus Clyne was a beacon of hope in a dark time, when it seemed to all who desired peace not only in the PLANTs, but throughout the Earth as well, that such a goal was unattainable. Her strength and her commitment to that ideal is what made the end of the war possible. Many people throughout the PLANTs believed and continue to believe in the things she stood for, and the ideals that she represented. I was and still am one of them, which is why I accepted to do this." Meer said sincerely. "Because she was not here, I accepted when I was asked to take her place, to act in her stead when she did not return, so that those ideals remained and lived on here in the PLANTs. It was Chairman Durendal who asked this of me, and I accepted because I thought that he too aspired to the same ideals and the same desire for peace that was Miss Lacus's, and in which I too believed.

But now I know the truth. I know that he lied to me, even as through me he lied to everyone. Because he does not desire peace the way she did, nor the way I do. Otherwise, why would he have had her killed?"

To say that the people who heard those words throughout the PLANTs were shocked was an understatement. Since he came into power, Durendal had been the voice for peace even in the tumult of a new war, and it was his leadership that had allowed the PLANTs to eradicate Logos, the monsters responsible for the Bloody Valentine, the later nuclear attacks on the PLANTs, and the mass murder of millions in the recent destruction of the Januarius and December colonies, as well as untold atrocities perpetrated on Earth.

There were those, however, who were disinclined to believe words spoken by an avowed impostor, while others stated that since she had revealed this of her own volition, she had no reason to lie about this either.  
>The latter were proven correct, as the camera panned outwards and revealed someone standing behind the ersatz Lacus Clyne: Ezalia Joule, of the National Defense Committee, and Eileen Canaver, of the Diplomatic Committee.<p>

Onboard the _Gondwana_, Durendal was not surprised to find the hand of Ezalia Joule behind this unexpected turn of events, though it seemed odd to him that Eileen Canaver, who had been one of Ezalia's staunchest opponents in the previous administration, should have supported her in this.  
>But it was Ezalia Joule who spoke next, her expression hard.<p>

- "An investigation by the Supreme Council, conducted by the National Defense Committee, determined that in March of this year, a team of ZAFT mobile suits under direct orders from Chairman Gilbert Durendal, illegally entered the territory of the Orb Union, where Lacus Clyne had been residing since the end of the First War, shortly after the Break the World Incident." She said evenly. "These forces infiltrated Orb covertly, and assassinated Lacus Clyne."

A stunned silence greeted this confirmation from a highly respected member of the Supreme Council, as millions of people throughout the PLANTs grappled with the implications of this revelation. Ezalia, however, continued to speak.

"Moreover as you now know, the giant cannon Requiem, located at the Atlantic Federation's former lunar base at Daedalus, was fired at Arzachel, killing President Copeland of the Atlantic Federation, as well as our ally President Baum, of the Eurasian Federation." She added. "This attack was carried out by the Lunar Orbital Fleet under direct orders from Durendal, and without either the knowledge or consent of the Supreme Council."

Ezalia paused for a moment, as throughout the PLANTs the anger that had been aroused was redirected from its former target to center on the Chairman, in many cases more due to the revelation that he had not only hired an impostor to impersonate Lacus Clyne, but that he had ordered her death.  
>The fact that he had jeopardized the safety of the PLANTs by attacking Arzachel served to fan the flames, however, and the vast majority of the civilian population of the PLANTs turned against him, as had been Ezalia Joule's intent in making this broadcast.<p>

It was Eileen Canaver, however, who spoke next.  
>- "In my time as a member of the Supreme Council, I worked closely, especially during the Bloody Valentine War, with Siegel Clyne both during his tenure as Chairman and afterwards, as he attempted to bring the war to a swift and peaceful end. I likewise knew Lacus well personally, and I know that neither she nor her father would have supported the actions taken as of late by Gilbert Durendal." She said.<p>

"This opinion is shared by the Supreme Council, and it is for this reason that as of today, Gilbert Durendal has been removed from his position on the Council and in the government of the PLANTs."

Here Eileen Canaver stopped, and Ezalia Joule once again addressed the nation.  
>"For his actions in deceiving the Supreme council and the population of the PLANTs, and for willfully ordering an unauthorized attack on another nation that claimed the lives of numerous individuals including the leader of the Eurasian Federation, which is our ally in our efforts to bring about a peaceful end to the war, Gilbert Durendal and all who support him are hereby considered by the Supreme Council to be enemies of the PLANTs." She announced. "We will authorize any action, including the use of force, to destroy once and for all Daedalus Base and its cannon, and to ensure that its threat is permanently removed, so that such an act can never again be perpetrated."<p>

There was a moment's silence, and then Meer spoke once again.  
>"Everyone," she said slowly, "please listen. I know that I have deceived you all as to my name, for which I am sorry. But everything that I have ever said I meant from the bottom of my heart. I have always believed in Miss Lacus, and I think that if she were here, she would agree with me that the same weapon that was used against us should not, ever, be used again by anyone. And I hope that everyone who believes the same things I do, and who hopes for peace in the same way that Miss Lacus did, will remember her, and will support the Council in their efforts to ensure that peace is possible, and that this terrible war is ended once and for all."<p>

Of those who listened, there was not one who was not touched by her impassioned plea, and throughout the PLANTs public opinion rallied behind Eileen Canaver and Ezalia Joule. In essence, they had carried out a coup d'état, without a single shot being fired.  
>In a matter of a few minutes, had turned Durendal from a great hero and a champion of peace to an enemy of mankind, reviled only slightly less than the likes of Teivel Jibril.<p>

In his quarters onboard the Nazca-class destroyer _Argenteuil_, the vessel's new Commanding Officer turned off the screen on which he'd viewed the broadcast, and shook his head.

"A coup d'état…" He muttered, as he understood the full ramifications of what Chairwomen Joule and Canaver had said. And masterfully executed, since he guessed that the two had swayed the rest of the Supreme Council before moving to depose Durendal, while at the same time turning the will of the entire population of the PLANTs against their former leader.

His thoughts turned to Meer, and to the tremendous strength and courage she had shown in doing what she had just done. For months, she had been hiding behind a mask, claiming an identity that was not her own and using Lacus's name and image - all, he knew, at Durendal's direction, but it was her own ideals that had motivated her to do this.

Athrun understood that, from his conversations with her. And now, to throw all of that away...Athrun was, he had to admit, more than a little impressed.

"Even she's doing her part, in her own way." He said aloud to the empty room. "I wonder what Lacus would say..."

In the aftermath of the broadcast, the level of activity in the PLANTs' military facilities rose to fever-pitch, as preparations were made for the largest single combat deployment of the ZAFT space fleet since the Second Battle of Jachin Due, while at the same time the Supreme Council contacted Orb and the Eurasian Federation. Every vessel was being prepared for launch, including the Argenteuil and the _Minerva_.

It had been roughly three hours since the attack. Onboard the _Minerva_, Shinn Asuka had, like most of the crew, watched the broadcast, which had left him uncertain and apprehensive.

"I never expected something like this to happen." He mumbled to himself as he pondered this latest development.

When the war started, he had thought he had a clear idea of who his enemy was. Even after he met Stella, even though she had been one of them, he was certain who he should be fighting.  
>But now, he was expected to fight against other Coordinators; the ZAFT Lunar Orbital Fleet was the one defending Requiem. And Rey was there...<br>He wished Athrun were here. Since Athrun had left, Shinn felt like he didn't really have anyone he could talk to.

Some time later, a communication was sent to the bridge of both the _Argenteuil_ and the _Minerva_.  
>Athrun briefly read the message summoning him to the base commander's office, summarily left Kurt Gunn, his XO, in charge and left the ship.<br>When he arrived at the base commander's office, he was surprised to see that he was not alone. Yzak stood outside the office as well, and so, to Athrun's surprise, did Shinn.

"Yzak, Shinn." Athrun greeted his two former shipmates.

- "Athrun." Both replied. Neither of them saluted - Yzak because he simply didn't want to, Shinn because he recalled Athrun having requested he not do so.

Then the door opened and they were let into the office. When they saw who was standing there, all three of them stood rigidly at attention and saluted.  
>- "Commanders Athrun Zala and Yzak Joule, and Shinn Asuka. Reporting as ordered." Yzak announced stiffly.<p>

- "Good. At ease, gentlemen." National Defense Committee Chairwoman Ezalia Joule replied. All three of them relaxed only slightly, but lowered their hands.

Standing next to and slightly behind Joule was Eileen Canaver, in her capacity as acting Chairwoman of the Supreme Council.  
>- "All three of you are here because you are members of FAITH," Eileen said, "but also because of your experience up to this point in this conflict. Chairwoman Joule has your orders, but I wanted to speak to you in person because of how critically important this next engagement will be."<p>

- "Ma'am," Athrun started to say, "If I might ask..." Ezalia held up her hand, and Athrun did not finish his question.

- "You are of course aware of the continued threat posed by Daedalus Base and its cannon." Ezalia said, and all three nodded.

- "So you intend to send a fleet to attack the base and destroy it?" Shinn asked, typically irreverently, but his tone at least was somewhat respectful.

- "Very concisely stated." Eileen Canaver replied. "Yes, our preparations are to deploy ZAFT forces in an attack on Daedalus, the objective of which is the destruction of the cannon. Complicating the issue is the fact that the enemy is also a ZAFT fleet. And I think it likely that they will not have seen the broadcast."

- "You mean that Durendal may have prevented the transmission from being relayed to the ships in the lunar fleet?" Athrun asked, and Chairwoman Canaver nodded.

- "I see." Athrun said pensively.

- "However," Ezalia continued, "your orders stand thus: Athrun and Yzak, you will lead the ZAFT fleet in the attack. Your targets are the cannon itself and the second relay station. Both must be destroyed. Shinn, you and the Destiny Gundam will focus on engaging enemy mobile suits to prevent them from attacking our ships."

- "Roger that." All three of them replied.

- "However," Ezalia continued, "We will not be attacking Daedalus alone."

- "The Orb fleet, ma'am?" Shinn asked.

- "And additional forces from Artemis." She confirmed. "You will rendezvous with them in orbit, then proceed to the two targets. I leave the specific strategy up to you." Ezalia handed to Athrun and Yzak a packet with their detailed orders.

Ezalia dismissed them, and the three left, heading to their respective ships. But as Athrun left the office and prepared to return to the Argenteuil, he heard a very familiar voice call out his name.

He turned, and found himself standing face to face with Meer Campbell.  
>She wore the same outfit she had worn for the broadcast, but she had removed the white-and-lavender overcoat, which he saw was draped over a chair nearby.<p>

- "Meer," he started, "what are you doing here?"

- "You saw the broadcast?" she asked. Athrun nodded.

- "What you did was incredibly brave." he said. "But why did you do it?"

- "Because I was tired of living a lie." She said. "And because of what Chairwoman Canaver told me about Durendal...and because of what you told me."

- "Me?"

- "The last time we met, you remember?" Meer asked, and suddenly Athrun did remember. He nodded.  
>"I just...I wanted everyone to know the truth." She said. "I think...it's what Miss Lacus would have wanted."<p>

- "I think you're right." Athrun said.

Meer took several steps forward, looking at him.  
>- "Thank you," she said, smiling. "It means a lot to me." Then she took another step forward, and kissed him. "Good-bye, Athrun." She said, still smiling.<p>

- "Good-bye, Meer." Athrun replied. Then he turned and walked away, returning to his ship.

Soon afterwards, the _Argenteuil_ launched, followed by the _Jouvenel_ and the Laurasia-class _Gaensler_. At the same time, the Joule Team's three ships were launching. The six ships linked up in a broad wedge formation, with the two flagships at the head, the Minerva leading.

Behind them, still more ships followed.

**Earth Orbit - the Debris Belt**  
><strong>Orb Union Space Fleet<strong>  
><strong>Flagship <em>Izumo<em>**

Cagalli Yula Athha stood on the bridge of the Izumo, the first ship of its class. The ship had left its home berth at Ame-no-Mihashira with a full complement of mobile suits, as had its sister ships - the Kusanagi, Susanoo, and Tsukiyomi.

And here in the Debris Belt, the four were joined by a fifth, smaller vessel: The FFMH-Y101 _Eternal_.

In point of fact, the Orb fleet was now located around the Eternal's own home port, a small but well-equipped factory constructed inside one of the larger asteroids in the Debris Belt. It was here that, after the end of the previous war, the Freedom Gundam was secretly and illegally rebuilt, before being smuggled into Orb and concealed in the hangar that had held it for so long.  
>It was also from here that the three stolen DOM Troopers, which were now returning to their mother ship, had been launched during Operation Fury, months earlier.<p>

And now, Cagalli stood in an upper room in the factory. With her were Colonel Ledonir Kisaka, the commander of the Kusanagi; Colonel Fumihiko Todaka, formerly of the _Takemikazuchi_, now the commander of the _Susanoo_; and Lieutenant Colonel Murrue Ramius, whom Cagalli had placed in command of the _Tsukiyomi_.

Standing across from them was ex-ZAFT Commander Andrew Waltfeld, now a Colonel in the Orb military as well, as the _Eternal_ was to become a part of the Orb fleet.

In addition to preparing her own vessels for combat, she had secretly corresponded with Marshall, who had said he would send additional forces to reinforce them from Artemis.  
>Those forces were arriving now: Two full Carrier Strike Groups, consisting of the Agamemnon-class carriers <em>Ectorius<em> and _Priam_, plus Nelson- and Drake-class escort ships.  
>Leading the fleet was a sleek, jet-black heavy assault carrier: The SCVXA-SO2 _Alakhshya_.

The _Alakhshya_ docked at the base, and watching it Murrue Ramius was struck by how similar the vessel was to the Archangel-class. Its lines were sleeker, simpler than the _Archangel_'s had been, but from what she could observe its layout seemed very similar, as did its weapons.

It occurred to her that the _Alakhshya_'s black-and-red color scheme was moreover reminiscent of that of the second ship of the Archangel-class, the _Dominion_.  
>She shook her head, trying to suppress the unpleasant memories of the last engagement against that vessel, years earlier.<br>But then the group moved towards the doors, which opened. And she saw who its commanding officer was.

"Natarle!" Murrue exclaimed as she recognized her former Executive Officer, whom she had thought killed years earlier.

- "Captain Ramius." Natarle replied formally, saluting her former CO - and former enemy - before turning towards Cagalli. "Representative Athha." She said by way of greeting. "It's good to see you again."

Ignoring the questioning glance from several people, including Murrue, Cagalli stepped forward and shook the older woman's hand.  
>- "Captain Badgiruel." she replied. "Thank you for coming."<p>

- "Of course, Representative Athha." Natarle replied formally. Then she turned towards her former CO. "I guess "someplace other than the battlefield" will still have to wait, Murrue."

- "I guess so." Murrue Ramius replied, somewhat moved at the reference - she herself had spoken those words to her former XO after Natarle was transferred from the _Archangel_. Unfortunately, the next time they had met, they had been enemies. "It's good to see you again, Natarle."

The younger woman nodded. Murrue introduced Natarle to the others, and the group continued when suddenly, a younger soldier walked up to the group.

- "Lady Cagalli, our long-range sensors are detecting a ZAFT fleet incoming." He said breathlessly.

- "How strong?"

- "It's difficult to tell because of the debris field, but it looks to be more than twenty vessels - possibly as many as thirty."  
>Cagalli swore under her breath. The Debris Belt was far from an ideal place to engage a numerically superior ZAFT fleet.<p>

- "Where is it coming from?" She asked, a nervous edge creeping into her voice. If Durendal had moved against them, they were finished. "Is it coming from the moon?"

- "No ma'am. Judging from their course, it's coming from L5."

Cagalli could have died of relief when she heard the response. L5 meant it was coming from the PLANT homeland. That meant it wasn't the enemy.

- "Thank God." Cagalli exclaimed. Then she turned to the young soldier. "Open up a secure communications line with the fleet, and transmit our position to them. Ask the Fleet commander to meet us here in an unarmed shuttle.

- "Yes ma'am."

- "Excuse me, Lady Cagalli," Colonel Todaka started to say, "But what does this mean, exactly?"

- "Reinforcements." Cagalli simply said with a smile.

Soon afterwards, not one but two small shuttles landed in the hangar, and two officers dressed in identical white uniforms disembarked. The two stopped at the foot of the stairs of their respective shuttles and addressed Cagalli directly.

"Commander Yzak Joule of the Joule Team, requesting permission to board."

- "Commander Athrun Zala, of the Zala Team - likewise."

- "Welcome aboard, to the both of you." Cagalli said warmly, and the two stepped out.

Yzak permitted himself a thin smirk as Cagalli introduced them to Colonel Ramius - formerly, he knew, of the _Archangel_.

- "Nice to see you again, youngster." Waltfeld commented, addressing Athrun. "Or I suppose I should say, Commander Zala. And you too, Commander Joule."  
>Yzak scoffed, but Athrun replied with an uneasy smile.<p>

- "Good seeing you again as well, Colonel Waltfeld."

The group left the hangar, and reached a larger room in which was displayed, on a huge digital display, a map of the Earth Sphere, showing their location, that of the moon, and the four relay stations for Requiem.  
>"This seems strangely familiar." Yzak commented sarcastically.<p>

- "I'm inclined to agree, Commander." Natarle supplied. "This is the second time we've been in this situation. Rather irritating."

- "Yeah." Athrun supplied. "I guess this time, we'd better make sure we do a thorough job of it."

- "So then, where do we stand in total?" Cagalli asked with an annoyed look at the three of them. "What's the status of our forces?"

- "The Orb fleet is standing by and ready for deployment, ma'am." Colonel Todaka, as the most senior Orb officer present, began. "The _Izumo, Kusanagi, Susanoo_, and _Tsukiyomi_ report full readiness. Each ship carries its full complement of sixteen machines."

- "The _Eternal_ is likewise ready to go at any time, with six mobile suits onboard." Andrew Waltfeld reported.

- "Thank you." Cagalli said, then turned to the others.

- "The _Alakhshya_ has a complement of twelve machines." Captain Badgiruel reported. "Additionally the _Priam_ and _Ectorius_, plus their escorts, are at full combat readiness. All told, 15 ships, 70 mobile suits."

- "The Joule Team is likewise - three ships; the Minerva, plus the Voltaire and Rousseau. Twenty-six mobile suits onboard, ready for combat. Plus the Zala Team - three ships and eighteen mobile suits." Yzak said formally. "Additional forces number twenty vessels, with a total of 120 mobile suits."

Cagalli took some notes and ran through the numbers.  
>- "So that's 58 ships, 368 mobile suits." She said. "Do we have an assessment of the enemy forces."<p>

- "The _Gondwana_ alone carries a possible maximum of 500 mobile suits." Athrun commented. "The escort fleet has taken severe losses due to the First Battle of Daedalus, and reinforcements from the PLANTs prior to the attack were minimal - right now, 30 to 36 ships is the most they could have."

- "Which still amounts to an additional force of close to two hundred machines." Yzak replied. "We're outnumbered two to one."

"In mobile suits, yes." Captain Ramius replied. "But we do have an edge in terms of both total number of ships and overall firepower."

- "Additionally, two of our ships are fitted with Mirage Colloid Stealth Systems." Cagalli revealed. "Captain Badgiruel's _Alakhshya_ and the _Izumo_."  
>Cagalli had not been pleased to learn that the illegal technology had been fitted to an Orb vessel - even if its installation predated the end of the previous war, which it did.<br>However in their situation, she was determined to make use of it. But when this was over, she would prevail on Mina to have it removed.

- "Here is what I think." Natarle replied. "Given the _Gondwana_'s size and capacity in terms of mobile suits, it is probable that the bulk of the Lunar Fleet will be tasked to defend the relay stations, with the Gondwana's own mobile suit forces providing the ship with most of its defenses."

- "I agree." Athrun commented. "So we can count on maybe ten to twelve escort ships around the Gondwana, and say twice that number at the relay station."

- "How that helps us," Captain Badgiruel continued, "is that we have more than enough firepower to overwhelm those kinds of numbers in ship-to-ship combat, while our mobile suit teams can focus on dealing with the enemy mobile suits. At the relay station, the odds would be in our favor anyway."

- "So for example the _Izumo_, the _Susanoo_, the _Eternal_ and half the ZAFT and Alliance fleets attack the relay station." Colonel Todaka picked up. "While the _Kusanagi, Tsukiyomi_, the _Alakhshya_, and the remaining Alliance and ZAFT ships attack the base itself and target the _Gondwana_ and the cannon."

- "That's the same strategy that was used in the first attack on Daedalus." Murrue protested. "He'll be expecting it."

- "What choice do we have?" Cagalli asked. "If we attack the relay station first, he'll have time to charge the cannon; he fires, and our fleet is finished. But if we attack Daedalus directly, what forces he has at the relay stations can move in and catch us in a pincer movement."

- "There is no other choice." Yzak spoke up. "The _Gondwana_ and that cannon are priority targets, but the forces at the relay station have to be dealt with."

- "Then are we all agreed?" Cagalli asked. "We pursue a two-pronged attack strategy?"  
>Around the room, each one nodded in turn. "With one Mirage Colloid-equipped ship in each fleet, we have some possible options there as well." She added.<br>The group spent another two or three hours working out their strategy, which ended up being along the lines of that proposed by Colonel Todaka. The meeting adjourned, each returned to his or her own ship and relayed the orders to their crew.

Slowly, the twenty-six-strong ZAFT fleet, the _Minerva_ and _Argenteuil_ at its head, began to head out first. Following it was the Eurasian Federation fleet led by the _Alakhshya_, with the smallest force, the Orb fleet led by the _Izumo_ and _Eternal_, bringing up the rear.

The vessels slowly left the Debris Belt and moved out into open space, fearful of enemy attack, but determined to move forward.  
>They all knew that this was perhaps the single most important battle they would ever face; rivaling the Second Battle of Jachin Due, four years earlier.<p>

And just like then, each and every one of them knew that failure was not an option.


	34. Phase 34: The Chosen Destiny

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **This is the first half of a two-parter, which covers the final battle of the story - broadly speaking, equivalent to Phases 49 to 50, though for obvious reasons a very different situation despite the general similarities in setting.

* * *

><p><strong>PHASE 34: The Chosen Destiny<strong>

**Lunar Orbit**  
><strong>On approach to Daedalus Base<strong>  
><strong>LHM-BB01 <em>Minerva<em>**

The _Minerva_, flanked by the _Voltaire_ and _Rousseau_ and followed by the cloaked Alakhshya, slowly closed in on Daedalus Base. The three ZAFT ships hugged the surface, while the cloaked Alliance carrier held a position astern and above them – a formation very similar to that adopted in the First Battle of Daedalus.

The ten ships of the First Home Defense Fleet, Third Battle Group and the Alliance's _Ectorius_ Carrier Strike Group had peeled off previously, and would approach the base in two groups from separate vectors, aiming to surround the enemy fleet and attack them from as many different points as possible. Each of the two formations was accompanied by an Orb Izumo-class carrier – Colonel Kisaka's _Kusanagi_, and Lieutenant Colonel Ramius's _Tsukiyomi_.

In a ship-to-ship engagement, the total force could have obliterated the ZAFT lunar orbital fleet. What would make this much more difficult would be the presence of the _Gondwana_, with its 480 mobile suits.

Their best hope was for Athrun to quickly deal with the relay station and move in on the base itself to reinforce their force – which was indeed the plan.

"This is going to be fucking tough." Yzak glowered as he sat on the ship's bridge. At the moment, the ship was at Condition Yellow, and the bridge had already been lowered to combat position, protected by a heavy armored bulkhead. The pilots were standing by in the ready room, already wearing normal suits. The crew wore normal suits as well.

In order to maximize the ship's carrying capacity, the two Impulse Gundams would be launched from the central catapult, which left room for two additional units in the hangar itself - for a total of fourteen.

They were closing in, and soon would begin their attack. This time, however, both the base and the relay station would be attacked simultaneously, because Yzak knew that Durendal would expect a two-pronged attack, and he was equally certain that if the relay station was attacked first, he would not bother to send much in the way of reinforcements any way.

He glanced at his watch.

"Only a few more minutes…"

In the ship's ready room, Shinn, Lunamaria and Stella waited anxiously, flight suits on and helmets in hand. Ten other pilots - the pilots of the _Minerva_'s other mobile suits, a mix of DOM Troopers, GOUF Igniteds and ZAKU Warriors - also waited, all of them wearing black-and-green flight suits, like Stella's. Shinn and Lunamaria were the only Reds left onboard.

The two reds sat a little apart, with Stella in her customary place at Shinn's side, across from Lunamaria.  
>Especially nerve-wracking for the two girls was the fact that the Impulse Gundams would be launching with new equipment for the first time.<p>

Even as the fleets left the PLANTs, Shinn had approached chief mechanic Matt Aves and requested to upgrade the Impulse's defensive capabilities by replacing its traditional shield with spares of the Destiny's more advanced MMI-RGX47 Assault Shield, with its powerful beam shield and additional close-range weapons, giving Unit 1 - Lunamaria's Blast Impulse - a much-needed increase in mêlée capability. The same was done to Unit 2, which would as usual be equipped with the fast and agile Storm Silhouette.

The Chest Flyers had been off-loaded and modified accordingly, and Shinn himself had personally made the requisite modifications to the Impulse's OS from the Core Splendors, before briefing the girls on their new equipment, as the modified Chest Flyers were replaced into the central catapult's loading bays.

"Don't worry," Shinn now said. "You'll be fine. I'll be right there with both of you."

- "Thank you." Stella said softly, and she rose up and kissed him. Lunamaria made a face, then hugged him.

- "We'll watch your back too, out there." She said. Shinn smiled, despite the grave circumstances.  
>He knew they would.<p>

**Zala Team flagship _Argenteuil_**

_Athrun_ Zala stood on the bridge of his vessel, the Nazca-class high-speed destroyer Argenteuil, and glanced out the wide bridge windows as he saw the other two ships that made up his team in formation on his starboard flank - the _Jouvenel_, also a Nazca-class, and the older Laurasia-class frigate _Gaensler_.

On the port side, he saw the familiar salmon-pink silhouette of the _Eternal_, flanked by one dull-white Izumo-class battleship. The flagship of the Orb fleet, the jet-black _Izumo_, was also in the formation, abreast of and slightly behind Colonel Todaka's _Susanoo_. However, Athrun could not see it.

Behind the six ships, he knew, was the ZAFT First Home Defense Fleet, Second Battle Group - a fleet ten ships strong, composed of a mix of Nazca- and Laurasia-class vessels.

Abreast of them was a Eurasian Federation Carrier Strike Group led by the Agamemnon-class carrier _Priam_, with roughly a half-dozen Nelson-class battleships and Drake-class escort ships.

All told there were close to forty vessels in the fleet, which was making good time towards its objective: A single, abandoned O-Neil I3 Closed-type Colony, which had been converted into a relay station for Daedalus's Orbital Tactical Cannon, Requiem.  
>The same cannon now controlled by ex-Supreme Council Chairman Gilbert Durendal.<p>

Their objective was relatively straightforward: destroy the colony. This meant they would need to engage a force of probably twenty to thirty ZAFT vessels.

At the same time, Athrun knew, his old friend Yzak was en route with a similar force towards the lunar base at Daedalus, with the mission of destroying the cannon itself.

"Distance 5000 to target." He heard Aaron Webb, who monitored the ship's sensors, report.

- "What's the status of our mobile suit teams?" Athrun asked. The response came from Rick Burnett, the comms officer.

- "All Zala Team mobile suits standing by for immediate take-off. Hangar reports the Saviour's ready for you if you want to go out, sir. All other ships are reporting ready."

- "Close to within 2000 and prepare for anti-ship combat. Mobile suits take off once we reach 2500 to target." Athrun ordered.

The instant the approaching vessels were detected, the ZAFT fleet defending the Relay station began to respond.

"What's the strength of the incoming fleet?" Commander Morgan, captain of the fleet's Nazca-class flagship _Hirschfelder_, asked. The reply from the CIC was instantaneous.

- "There are thirteen ZAFT vessels, sir; it looks like a mix of Nazca and Laurasia-class. I am also seeing one Orb Izumo-class and an Alliance Carrier Group – single Agamemnon-class carrier, two Nelson-class battleships, and several Drake-class escorts. And…the _Eternal_, sir! Enemy vessels are launching mobile suits!"

The Alliance and Orb made sense. But Morgan was confused as to the presence of so many ZAFT ships, and wondered what the hell was going on there. The presence of the _Eternal_, a vessel that had disappeared following the Second Battle of Jachin Due almost five years earlier, was even more puzzling.

He didn't wonder for long, dismissing the question and moving into action. Whatever qualms he may have had about the continued operation and use of a weapon of mass destruction that had been used against the PLANTs, Commander Morgan was a soldier first, and his orders were to defend the relay station from any enemy attack.

- "Prepare for anti-ship and anti-mobile suit combat!" He barked in response. "All ships deploy mobile suit teams."

Immediately, the _Hirschfelder_'s mobile suits began launching one by one as all of the other ZAFT ships in the station defense fleet did the same. At the same time, the ships themselves turned towards the incoming enemy forces and opened fire, sending a barrage of beam cannon fire heading towards the fleet.

On the bridge of the _Argenteuil_, Athrun had anticipated the attack, and at the moment the enemy ships fired his ships moved to evade, with the end result that the initial salvo missed except for minimal damage to the _Gaensler_. The more maneuverable Izumo-class _Susanoo_ did likewise, and the Alliance vessels had already begun moving out of the line of fire, except for a single Drake-class escort which took the shot on one of its four arms, badly damaging it but fortunately missing the big missile launcher.

The reply was swift and deadly, as the Alliance's Nelson- and Drake-class ships unleashed their own missile launchers, followed by a volley from their cannons, joined by the twin beam cannon of the _Priam_. A second volley of cannon fire from the _Susanoo_ and the ZAFT ships followed.

Commander Morgan ordered his ships to evade immediately, and what point-defense weapons they had were brought to bear on the incoming missiles, supplemented by suppressive fire from their mobile suits. Most of the missiles were destroyed in-flight, and the fleet was able to evade those that remained.

However, though the first volley of cannon fire was avoided by the fleet and sailed harmlessly past, the second volley had been aimed slightly differently. Only two ships took glancing blows from the second volley, while the bulk of it struck the colony behind them.

Morgan swore angrily.

Then the first wave of attacking mobile suits reached their defensive lines, and the battle began in earnest as ZAKUs, GOUF Igniteds, and GuAIZ-Rs met and engaged against machines of the same type, supplemented by Alliance Windam and Daggers.

Initially, the battle seemed to be more or less evenly matched, and the line held. But Morgan knew that this would not last long - especially as he noticed that the enemy Izumo-class had held its own mobile suits back; there were no Orb units in combat, only Alliance and ZAFT machines. He wasn't sure whether the _Eternal_ had sent out any mobile suits either, but he thought not.

They were outnumbered. But they had their orders, and they would follow them.

On the bridge of the Nazca-class _Vermeer_, Heine Westenfluss, wearing his distinctive orange flight suit, had been standing on the bridge behind the captain, and as soon as the order went out he nodded.

"I will lead our mobile suit team out Captain. I'm leaving things here to you." Heine said, and he headed down to the hangar where he found his machine waiting.

He glanced up at the orange-and-brown YMF-3000 DOM Trooper, which had been fitted with the now-rare Tempest Wizard Pack. Originally created as a high-mobility and atmospheric flight equipment for the ZGMF-1000 ZAKU, production of the Tempest Wizard had ceased with only a few dozen units produced, when the Integrated Design Bureau had rolled out the GOUF Ignited.

The pack was nearly useless to the DOM in Earth's atmosphere due to the machine's high mass. In space however, it would give the already fast and maneuverable machine a significant boost to its mobility, and the added firepower of the twin "Hydra" beam gatling guns would be useful as well - especially given how badly their mobile suit forces were outnumbered.

He glanced down the row at the Westenfluss Team's other machines - three ZAKU Warriors, two GOUF Igniteds, all of them in standard green but with their left shoulder painted bright orange. Two of the three ZAKU Warriors wore Blaze Wizard Packs, the last a Gunner Wizard.

Heine boarded his machine, and soon enough was on the catapult and ready. Before long, he was cleared for takeoff.

"Heine Westenfluss. DOM, launching!" He said, and the orange machine shot forward from the _Vermeer_'s single catapult. The GOUFs, then the ZAKUs followed. Heine ordered one of the GOUF Igniteds and two of the ZAKUs - the Gunner among them - to hold back in defensive position above the ship, as he and the remaining three mobile suits shot into the fray.

As he moved in, Heine drew the DOM Trooper's main weapon, the dual "Gigaplex" launcher that combined a 60mm beam rifle and heavy bazooka. Instantly, he drew a bead on an incoming Windam and opened fire with the weapon, taking it in the cockpit and destroying it. The other two machines in the enemy formation scattered, only to be flanked by the two escorting GOUF Igniteds and destroyed.

"That's teamwork, boys and girls." Heine commented as he accelerated. This time he found himself under fire from a mixed formation of ZAKUs and GOUFs, but he used the Tempest DOM's tremendous maneuverability to easily evade the attack, before opening up with the beam gatling guns, then a salvo from his Gigaplex's beam rifle.

To his credit, the leader of the enemy formation was skilled, and dodged his attack easily before destroying his Gigaplex with the GOUF Ignited's Slayer Whip. Two of the ZAKUs were similarly fortunate, but a barrage from his escorting Blaze ZAKU took out one of them, and the two GOUF Igniteds flanked the other, taking it out with their own beam rifles.

"Not bad!" Heine commented as he closed in and struck with the DOM's beam saber, only for the attack to be parried by the GOUF's "Carnwennan" beam sword. "Not bad at all, pal."

He pulled back, and fired the "Screaming Nimbus" scattering beam cannon. The GOUF went evasive, blocking the attack easily, and then counterattacked with the "Draupnir" machinegun. Heine blocked with the DOM Trooper's beam shield, but the enemy had been expecting the move and countered with the "Slayer Whip", damaging the emitter and disabling the beam shield.

Heine's reply was to fire the "Hydra" beam gatlings, which shredded the GOUF Ignited apart even as it closed in to once again attack at close-range. "But not good enough."

Athrun wore his red-and-black flight suit even as he sat in his seat on the bridge, just in case he needed to launch. The Knight Saviour was being held on standby for immediate takeoff, and the _Argenteuil'_s five other mobile suits, along with the twelve mobile suits carried by its two escorts, had already launched.

Suddenly, Aaron at the CIC reported with alarm. "Sir, offensive line is collapsing in Sector Three - looks like an enemy mobile suit team is overwhelming our forces."

- "How many?" Athrun asked.

- "Just four machines." came the reply. "Bringing up a visual now, sir."

The screen, for just an instant, showed two of their machines as another mobile suit shot by like a blur before eliminating both. But in that instant, Athrun had seen enough to identify his opponent.

_'Heine...'_ he thought grimly as he had recognized the orange colors. He glanced at the clock on the main monitor. _'Damn it. It's too early...'_

Their strategy called for precise timing on the deployment of the second wave in order to coordinate the assault with the _Izumo_, and he knew that the latter vessel was not yet in position.

At that moment, he was reminded of an old saying. "I guess it's true that no strategy can survive contact with the enemy." He mused rhetorically. Then he turned to Rick Burnett at the comms station.

"Rick, Contact the _Susanoo_."

He found Cagalli standing on its bridge next to Colonel Todaka. Not surprisingly, Cagalli like himself was wearing a flight suit, indicating her intent to launch.

"Colonel Todaka. Cagalli." Athrun said. "Can we launch the second wave now? Our offensive line is collapsing fast in sector 3, and we need to reinforce them."

- "If we launch now, the _Izumo_ will not have sufficient cover - we can't begin Phase 2 until it's in position." Colonel Todaka said.

- "I know. But if we wait, the enemy will break through and the _Izumo_'s position will be directly threatened regardless of our deployment." Athrun countered.

- "Very well." Cagalli said. "We're launching."

Covered by the Alliance escort ships, the _Tsukiyomi_ opened its single catapult, and first to enter the catapult for launch was the gleaming golden Akatsuki.

In its cockpit, Cagalli frowned. Their initial strategy had called for the _Izumo_ and the _Tsukiyomi_ to launch their machines simultaneously from opposite sides of the battlefield, hammering the attacking force from two sides.

But now that strategy was in shambles. Plus her own Kinshu Team was onboard the Izumo, so she would have to launch without them. She shook her head.

"Cagalli Yula Athha - Akatsuki, taking off!" She announced, and she grunted as the acceleration slammed her back in her seat as the Akatsuki was thrown forward by the ship's single linear catapult. The instant she was out, the next mobile suit was lined up for launch.

At the same time, Athrun had left command of the ships to his XO and headed down to the hangar, where he boarded the Knight Saviour and took off immediately.

He spotted the Akatsuki, escorted by two Murasames, and immediately moved to converge, linking up with the formation and taking up a position on the Akatsuki's starboard flank.  
>The four mobile suits - the Akatsuki, Saviour, and two Murasames - accelerated towards the Westenfluss Team's five-unit formation, and opened fire as soon as they were in range.<p>

Cagalli targeted the lead unit, firing both the beam rifle and the two "Oowashi" beam cannons.

Heine's Tempest DOM Trooper dodged the attack, then counterattacked with the "Screaming Nimbus" scattering beam cannon and "Hydra" beam gatling guns.

The attack was halted by the Akatsuki's "Yata-no-Kagami" beam reflective armor, which dissipated the shots. At the same time however, Heine fired a shot from his "Gigaplex" bazooka, and the escorting Blaze ZAKU Warrior also unleashed a volley of missiles from its two back-mounted launchers.

"Damn!" Cagalli swore as she was forced to go on the defensive, dodging the bazooka round and using the Akatsuki's head-mounted vulcan guns to stave off the missiles.

One of the escorting Murasames likewise added the fire of its own vulcan guns to the barrage.

With two of the mobile suits tied up, the two GOUF Igniteds moved in, "Carnwennan" sabers drawn, only to be forced to withdraw as a barrage of cannonfire shot straight across their flight path.

In the Knight Saviour, Athrun had fired his machine's weapons, forcing the two GOUFs to scatter.  
>The two GOUFs turned to him and drew their beam rifles. Athrun's Knight Saviour, its own two beam rifles in hand, countered before they could even have the chance to fire, and within seconds, had shot off both the GOUF Igniteds' arms, taking their rifles.<p>

Then Heine opened fire, and Athrun blocked the attack.  
>At that moment the ZAKU Warrior fired another missile barrage, and Athrun retaliated instantly, an attack that blasted the incoming missiles apart before they'd even gotten halfway to their target. Then he accelerated, stowing the rifles and drawing his two beam sabers.<p>

The ZAKU parried the first strike, then the second, but was too slow to evade the third, which severed its arm, taking with it the beam tomahawk. The ZAKU attempted to retreat, but one of the Murasames was waiting, and opened fire from above, blasting the Blaze Wizard's missile launchers, which detonated, causing crippling damage to the ZAKU.

"Athrun!" Cagalli warned even as she opened fire, forcing Heine to break off even as he had attempted to attack the Saviour from behind.

"What exactly do you think you're doing here, Athrun?" Heine asked viciously as he swung the DOM's beam saber, which Athrun parried.

- "I could ask you the same thing." Athrun replied. Then he countered, with a thrust from the beam saber aimed at the DOM's camera.

Heine slipped backwards out of the Saviour's striking range, then cut loose with the "Hydra" beam gatling guns.  
>Athrun blocked the attack with the "Validus Fulgor" beam shield, then fired the "Hyper Fortis", waited a second, then adjusted his trajectory and fired the "Amfortas Kai" cannons.<p>

- "Not bad." Heine muttered as he went defensive, narrowly avoiding the first attack, then blocking the second.

Athrun shook his head. The DOM Trooper was already an extremely agile machine, but with the Tempest Wizard and in space, it was almost on the level of something like the Freedom.

- "I know why I'm here, Athrun!" Heine said. "Because I have orders, and because we have to bring this war to an end, once and for all."

- "The war was over!" Athrun retorted. "The enemy was beaten, the battle over, Heine. Until Durendal attacked Arzachel!"

Heine paused for a second at that one, and had to activate his beam shield to block an attack from one of those two Murasames. He counterattacked instantly, firing the beam rifle, then the bazooka.  
>The Murasame dodged, but at that moment another formation of mobile suits moved in and fired.<p>

Heine, meanwhile, was forced to evade another attack from the Saviour, which rapidly closed back into close-quarters combat.

Meanwhile, the _Eternal_ launched its own mobile suits, consisting of Hilda Harken's three DOM Troopers and a single white Hyperion-G, escorted by two Astrays.

In the Hyperion-G's cockpit, Canard Pars grinned. The Hyperion-G was a pre-production mobile suit created by the Eurasian Federation based on the old prototype Hyperion Gundams they had created in C.E. 71, prior to the rollout of the Strike Dagger.

Canard had been the pilot of the original Hyperion Unit 1, fielded out of Artemis. He had left the military to become a mercenary later on, and ironically was hired to serve as test pilot once Vice-President Marshall commissioned the creation of a trial production type version. His sole payment had been to receive one of the machines for his own personal use – at his request.

It was less heavily armed than his old Hyperion by half but still a deadly machine, and he had further customized his own unit using spare parts he still had leftover from its predecessor. Whereas the Hyperion-G normally equipped a single "Armure Lumière" generator mounted to the tip of the "Forfanterie" cannon, his own machine had three, with an additional one mounted to each forearm.

The fleet's ships now fired a second barrage at the enemy formation, which was answered in kind by the defending ZAFT ships. They had more success this time, as the barrage destroyed the _Vermeer_, and even the _Hirschfelder_ took a bad hit. Meanwhile two of the Drake-class escort ships fell to enemy fire.

Canard glanced at the chronograph mounted on his console.

"All right, let's show these bastards what this baby can do!" He said, a feral grin on his face, as the six mobile suits soared into battle.

An enemy mobile suit formation spotted the six approaching mobile suits and opened fire on the Hyperion-G.

Canard immediately blocked the attack using the "Armure Lumière" generator on his left wrist, then counterattacked by firing the "Zavasta Stigmate" beam submachine gun, riddling the nearest ZAKU Warrior with holes and killing its pilot.

The three DOM Troopers likewise opened fire with their own weapons, decimating the formation. Then as a second group closed in, she opened up a communication line to Herbert and Mars.

"Let's go, boys." She said. The reply from the other two was laconic and instantaneous.

- "Right behind ya, boss." They both said.

In perfect synchronization, the three DOM Troopers slid into formation, while the two Astrays spread out and took up covering positions. Hilda ignited her beam shield, and the three DOMs launched their signature Jet Stream Attack, plowing into and decimating the enemy mobile suit team.

Though several of them scattered, the move took down four units, and even as the remaining machines moved to attack, the three DOMS spun on their axis even as the Astrays fired, the five machines catching the other units in a deadly crossfire.

An enemy DOM Trooper suddenly fired, taking out one of the Astrays, then turned its weapons on Canard even as he deployed the Hyperion-G's big "Forfanterie" beam cannon. Canard ignited the "Armure Lumière" generator on the cannon's tip and the one on his wrist, blocking the attack, then countered. Much to his surprise, the DOM Trooper dodged his attack.

"Well, you're just something special, aren't you you little bastard?" Canard commented, then as he stowed the big cannon he drew one of the two "Romteknika" beam knives, which had the peculiar ability to adjust the length of their blades, and activated a full-length beam saber.

The remaining Astray closed in on the DOM only to be ignominiously cut in half, but the attack left the enemy open, and Canard opened fire with the back-mounted 56mm machinegun, a move that damaged the DOM's arm and rendered its big beam saber useless. Then he countered with his own saber, cutting the arm off and before the enemy could move to counter he slipped the beam submachine gun's barrel upwards and unleashed a point-blank salvo into its cockpit.

He withdrew, stowing the saber and ejecting the spent magazine from his weapon. He seized a fresh one from the hardpoint on the Hyperion-G's hip, which left two more mounted to its rear waist, and slid it home.

Then he moved in, and suddenly found himself engaged by a GOUF Ignited, which swung its long Slayer Whip at him.

"Not bad!" Canard commented, even as he goosed the Hyperion-G's thrusters and avoided the attack, then accelerated, closing in on the GOUF as he did so. The enemy machine fired its "Draupnir" machinegun, and Canard blocked the attack with his "Armure Lumière" shield, then fired the back-mounted machinegun at the same time as his beam submachinegun. The attack tore apart the GOUF's cockpit block.

An alarm rang in his cockpit, and he barely avoided another attack from a DOM Trooper, before immediately counterattacking with the machinegun. The DOM activated its beam shield, blocking the attack, then fired a salvo that, though Canard was able to avoid major damage by activating his own "Armure Lumière" shield, still shot his machinegun off its mounting point on his backpack.

"Fuck." Canard swore.  
>He charged, even as the DOM did the same. Suddenly, the triangular energy field the Hyperion-G had generated folded in on itself, and even as Canard parried the DOM's beam saber with the shield he activated on his machine's other arm, drove the folded beam blade deep into the DOM Trooper's torso.<p>

"Ha! Let's see your beam shield do that, you son of a bitch!" Canard said spitefully.

Then he glanced at the chronograph on his console for the second time, and a feral grin twisted his handsome features as he watched the timer count down to zero.

"Time's up." He said, grinning again.

Suddenly, onboard the _Hirschfelder_, alarms rang as a massive barrage of cannon fire seemingly appeared out of nowhere, heading in towards the fleet from its starboard flank.

Completely unprepared, the formation was decimated as one of his ships went down totally destroyed and two more suffered severe damage.

"Where the devil did that attack come from?" Morgan roared.

Within seconds, he had his answer as the _Izumo_ deactivated its Mirage Colloid Stealth System, and then deployed its deadly, dual-barreled "Lohengrin" positron cannons. The massive weapons fired even as the central catapult opened and an additional fifteen MVF-M11C Murasame mobile suits were launched.

The fleet had scant seconds to evade, and another ship was destroyed. The others escaped the line of fire however, but again the shot slipped past them and slammed into the colony, slamming through the armor and damaging the reflection system within.

As the new formation of mobile suits closed in Morgan found his forces caught between hammer and anvil, as it were. His ships and mobile suits were caught between the larger fleet in front of them and this new force coming in from their side.

"Counterattack immediately!" He ordered, though he knew it was futile. Three of his ships turned towards the _Izumo_ and fired, while the others launched another volley at the larger group of ships. But the vessels were spread far apart, and most of the shots either missed or struck only glancing blows, except for one volley that critically damaged one of the enemy Nelson-class ships.

The battle continued to rage as ZAFT, Alliance, and Orb mobile suits continued to engage against the defending fleet's outnumbered mobile suit force.

"Where the hell is Commander Westenfluss?" Morgan demanded angrily.

At that moment, Heine was engaged in combat against Athrun's Knight Saviour.  
>"Hmmm..." he commented as he glanced at his monitor. "Starting to get a little low on power. I have to end this soon."<br>He went mobile, firing the "Hydra" gatling guns at the Saviour, which evaded the attack and countered with its own plasma cannons.

Suddenly, Athrun fired the "Grapple Stinger" rocket anchor, which slipped just past the Tempest DOM Trooper's head and sliced the left Hydra cannon in two.  
>Before the weapon could be retracted, Heine severed the cable that held it with his beam saber, then drew the DOM's "Gigaplex" launcher and fired the beam rifle, supported by the remaining gatling gun.<p>

- "As long as the Alliance has any capability to attack the PLANTs, this war is not over, Athrun." Heine commented.

- "That's garbage and you know it!" Athrun retorted as he narrowly avoided Heine's attack, then countered with the Saviour's beam rifles. Heine blocked, and his counterattack struck one of the two beam rifles, which Athrun tossed away before it exploded.

- "Where does something like this stop, Heine?" Athrun asked. "Will Durendal destroy Orb next because Cagalli doesn't agree with what he's doing? Or the PLANTs?"

Athrun fired the Saviour's beam rifle, and this time his shot slipped past the DOM's defenses and struck the second "Hydra" gatling gun, which detonated, damaging the Tempest Wizard.  
>He drew the "Flash Edge II" boomerang and threw it at the DOM Trooper, and Heine immediately fired, destroying the projectile with the "Gigaplex".<p>

But Athrun fired the "Hyper Fortis" cannons, which hit the Gigaplex and damaged it, rendering the weapon useless.  
>Sabers drawn, the Knight Saviour closed in on its opponent, as the DOM Trooper ejected the now largely-useless Tempest Wizard and, with its own single beam saber, closed in on the Saviour.<p>

Athrun batted aside the DOM's thrust with one saber, then countered with the other, and though Heine slipped backwards, the attack cut a shallow groove across the DOM Trooper's armor that hit the scattering beam cannon, damaging it and rendering it inoperable.

"So this battle is going to be decided at close-range, huh?" Heine mused. Then he struck once again.

But Athrun was ready. He slipped the DOM's attack, then moved in and counterattacked. He severed the DOM Trooper's arm, then both legs.

Suddenly, the DOM's torso shot forwards towards the Knight Saviour, slammed into it, and exploded, rocking the machine backwards but doing no damage.  
>When the smoke cleared, Athrun saw a quick flash of orange, which he recognized as the DOM Trooper's escape pod, heading back towards the <em>Hirschfelder<em>.

He did not pursue.

The _Priam_ and its few remaining escorts opened fire into the fleet one more time, but this time Commander Morgan was ready. He ordered his ships to scatter, and all of them slid out of the line of fire, the attacks harmlessly passing them by. The barrage missed the relay station as well. Though damaged, the giant cylinder remained operational.

However, the move opened a gap in their defensive perimeter. Morgan immediately ordered his ships to change their formation to compensate, but he was too slow.

Taking advantage of the breach in the fleet's formation the _Izumo_ fired again, its four positron cannons raking down the entire length of the relay station, literally ripping away a sizable chunk of the converted colony's side down its entire length, including the propulsion blocks at the opposite end of the cylinder. The attack totally disabled the Geschmeidig Panzer system, and the reflection field collapsed.

"_Izumo_ reports the relay station has been neutralized." Rick, the Argenteuil's comms officer reported. Everyone on board breathed a momentary sigh of relief, knowing that there was no longer any risk to the PLANTs or Earth. They had achieved their objective.

Suddenly, alarms rang out as Aaron suddenly spoke from the console where he was monitoring the ship's sensors.

"We're detecting a massive energy signature incoming, sir!" He said with a panicked edge in his voice. "Computer designates the point of origin as the lunar surface."

- "Damn!" Kurt swore. "They've fired Requiem! Order all of our vessels to fall back immediately! Jo, get us the hell out of the line of fire!"

Jo Crocker, at the helm, acted instantly. Meanwhile the same order was relayed to all the other ships of the Zala Team and the Third Battle Group, while Cagalli onboard the Izumo relayed the same warning to the _Susanoo_ and the _Eternal_ as well as the Eurasian Federation's ships. The massive formation began moving as fast as they could to escape the incoming attack.

At the same time, Commander Morgan on the _Hirschfelder_ heard the news and likewise ordered his forces to get away from the colony as fast as suits on both sides also began to move as fast as they could out of the line of fire of the rapidly-closing shot from Daedalus's massive cannon.

But they were too slow and too late, as the shot reached the damaged colony and tore through it, continuing on its deadly course directly through the two formations of ships even as the vessels moved to evade it. The crippled colony, already fatally damaged by the _Izumo_'s attack, was blasted apart by the shot it was intended to redirect, and its remaining propulsion blocks exploded almost directly behind the flank of the defending fleet.

Some of the ships on both sides escaped the attack unscathed, as did many mobile suits. A number of vessels were caught by the beam just as they escaped its line of fire, suffering differing degrees of damage. A sizable number of ships and mobile suits failed to escape the attack in time, and they were completely destroyed.

As soon as the attack was over, Athrun opened up a direct communications line to the _Argenteuil_ and asked for a damage report. The news was not encouraging.

"Two of the Third Battle Group's ships were totally destroyed by the attack, sir. Several others suffered damage as well. We also lost roughly a quarter of our remaining mobile suits." Kurt, the Argenteuil's XO, reported. "The _Gaensler_ has suffered damage to its starboard engine block, but this ship and the _Jouvenel_ were able to avoid the attack and are unharmed."

- "What about the Orb and Alliance forces?" Athrun asked.

- "Two Drake-class destroyed by the attack, and one Nelson-class severely damaged. The Priam suffered minor damage, but they're saying it's still operational." Athrun could tell Kurt was holding back something, and he waited. After a pause of a few seconds, the XO continued. "The _Eternal_ has been destroyed."

Athrun paused for a moment as the impact of this statement hit him. For several instants, he seemed to be unable to speak, and Kurt wondered whether they had lost the connection.

- "Any survivors?" Athrun asked, with some difficulty.

- "We're not sure, but it's not very likely. The _Gaensler_ is closing in on the ship's position to attempt to determine if there were."

"Contact the _Gaensler_." Athrun said, still struggling to keep his voice level. "Tell them to focus on recovering as many of the wounded as they can – from all the ships. Tell them to send their remaining mobile suits to our ship and the _Jouvenel_. For now, the mobile suits are to take up defensive positions around the ships.

"Yes, sir." The XO replied, and Athrun cut the link, willing himself not to weep for the loss of so many good men and women. At least, not yet.

Onboard the _Hirschfelder_, Commander Morgan likewise asked for a damage report in the aftermath of the attack. The news was not good. Easily one third of their remaining ships had been destroyed, and several of the others had sustained significant damage. Half their mobile suit force was gone.

"Damn it." Morgan fumed. Durendal had fired with his own forces in the line of fire, and the fact that the opposing fleet had been almost as badly battered was little consolation.

- "What do we do, sir?" his XO asked tentatively.

- "What option do we have?" Morgan replied. "If we keep fighting in these conditions, it's a dead certainty we're finished. Besides, the relay station has been destroyed – we've failed in our objective."

Morgan hesitated for a moment, grappling with the implications of what he was about to do. "Send out a signal for all mobile suits to stand down and cease combat. This battle is over."

The order went out, and one by one the ZAFT defense fleet's ships signaled their surrender, as they began to recall their mobile suits.

In the Knight Saviour's cockpit, Athrun sighed wearily. The battle was won, but at what cost? How many had died today, he didn't want to think about.  
>The Knight Saviour headed straight for the <em>Hirschfelder<em>, and Athrun opened up a communications line to its bridge.

Soon afterwards, he was on the bridge, standing opposite Heine and Commander Morgan.  
>"Commander Morgan. Heine." Athrun said, saluting respectfully. The two officers returned the salute, albeit Morgan somewhat half-heartedly.<p>

- "So then, Commander Zala." Morgan replied shortly. "May I ask why you're here, and why the hell you attacked us?"

- "Direct orders from the Supreme Council. I have here amended orders from Chairwoman Canaver for you and your ships." Athrun replied. "I am sorry it had to come to this." He added.

Morgan read the document, and the color drained from his craggy face.  
>- "What the hell is this?" He asked.<p>

- "An in-depth investigation by the National Defense Committee concluded that Durendal illegally ordered an incursion into Orb territory that resulted in the assassination of Lacus Clyne. The one the PLANTs thought was Lacus was in fact an impostor hired by Durendal. Additionally, the same investigation uncovered ties between Durendal and the terrorists who orchestrated the Break the World Incident.

As a result, Gilbert Durendal has been deposed, and is no longer Chairman of the Supreme Council." Morgan and Heine looked askance at Athrun. "A broadcast announcing this was made by Chairwoman Canaver and National Defense Committee Chairwoman Joule."

- "I saw no such broadcast." Morgan replied.

- "Nor I." Heine supplanted. "Though I suppose if the _Gondwana_ intercepted the broadcast, it could have prevented it from being transmitted to the rest of the fleet."

This confirmed Athrun's suspicions. Thankfully, arrangements had already been made to address the issue, and after requesting permission to use the _Hirschfelder_ to send a communication to the _Argenteuil_, he sent a message to his ship.  
>Soon, a transmission from the <em>Argenteuil<em> to the PLANTs was relayed to the _Hirschfelder_, and thence to all remaining ships in the small fleet. The transmission was of poor quality due to the distance involved and there was a good deal of interference, but it was sufficient.

"Commander Morgan, Commander Zala." Ezalia Joule acknowledged.

- "Chairwoman Joule." Morgan replied.

- "You have a question about your orders, Commander?" Joule asked curtly, and he nodded. "You doubt their validity." Ezalia Joule added.

- "It is…difficult to believe that something like this might be the case." Morgan said carefully. "Although…"

- "Well, let me say this. Everything that Athrun has told you is correct. And these orders are direct from Acting Chairwoman Canaver and me. You and your forces are to be reorganized under the overall command of the Zala Team, effective immediately. Your orders are to reinforce the Joule Team's lunar orbit attack on Daedalus, and ensure the total destruction of the Orbital Tactical Cannon at that base."

- "Yes, ma'am." Morgan assented. The communication was cut.

Morgan turned to Athrun "Well, that's that." He said. "Now what do we do?"

"The _Gaensler_ and _Susanoo_ will remain here to recover and treat the wounded from the damaged ships on both sides". Athrun replied.

- "There are full medical facilities on the Westenfluss Team's _Vesuvius_ as well." Heine supplied. "I can leave that vessel to provide additional assistance."

- "Thank you, Heine." Athrun said sincerely. "The other ships of both groups will form up and begin to head to the moon. Our orders are simple: Destroy the cannon."

- "Very well." Morgan agreed. "I will broadcast to our ships and relay to them their new orders."

- "I also have here a recording of the broadcast that was made by Chairwomen Canaver and Joule." Athrun said, handing the disk to Commander Morgan. "I suggest this be transmitted to them as well."

- "Right." Morgan said.

- "I'm returning to the _Argenteuil_. Let me know once your forces are ready to go." Athrun said.

Once Athrun was back on board his ship, he relayed orders to Arnie Bergstrom on the _Gaensler_ to remain in place while Zack Freeburg's _Jouvenel_ formed up on his port flank. Then the remaining vessels of his ten-ship fleet began to gather around the two ships that would lead the group, even as the _Hirschfelder_ and the remaining vessels began to regroup into a similar wedge formation, except for the Nazca-class _Vesuvius_, which moved into a position beside the _Gaensler_. By mutual agreement, the two ships would be placed under Heine's overall command until the recovery operations were complete.

Athrun then contacted Cagalli, now onboard the _Izumo_. Cagalli then confirmed that Colonel Todaka's _Tsukiyomi_ would remain in place until the wounded had been gathered from the damaged and destroyed ships, including the unfortunate _Eternal_.

Athrun looked out the bridge window for a moment, and he felt a pang as he gazed at the charred remains of the vessel that had been Lacus's flagship during the First War.

Then he turned away.

"Captain," Rick reported from the comms station, "The _Hirschfelder_ and the _Jouvenel_ report that all ships are ready to move out. That's twelve ships, with a total of 60 mobile suits; Our forces have sixteen ships left, not including the _Gaensler_, with 120 mobile suits."

"What's the status of the Alliance forces?" Athrun asked.

- "The Priam reports that they have two Nelson-class and two Drake-class ships ready for deployment in addition to their carrier; roughly 36 mobile suits still left." Rick replied.  
>Then without being asked, he continued. "The <em>Izumo<em> is ready as well, and carries 16 mobile suits, including a number of mobile suits from the _Susanoo_ and the _Eternal's_ four remaining machines."

- "So all told, we have 34 ships and about 230 mobile suits." Kurt commented. "But will it be enough?"

Athrun sighed, but steeled himself and gave the order.  
>- "It will have to be. All forces, prepare to move out." He said. "We are now headed to the moon to reinforce the Joule Team's attack on Daedalus."<p>

And the sorely diminished fleet, reinforced by the vessels that remained of the fleet formerly defending the now-destroyed Relay Station, began to move forward, with the _Argenteuil_ and the Izumo leading the _flight_ – leaving three ships behind with orders to rejoin them once recovery of the wounded was completed. The latter activated its Mirage Colloid system, disappearing from view and from their sensors, but Athrun knew it was still there.

With this relay station now destroyed, there was no longer any way for Requiem to be redirected, not without first moving one of the four remaining converted colonies. And they could not do that as long as the battle was ongoing. Even if Durendal fired again, the damage would be minimal, and Athrun had taken care to position his fleet outside the cannon's direct line of fire.

This was the final battle, and it would end with either the destruction of the cannon and the defeat of Durendal…or in failure, with potentially devastating consequences.

He only hoped it was not yet too late…

**Daedalus Lunar Base**  
><strong>ZAFT Lunar Orbital Fleet<strong>  
><strong>Flagship <em>Gondwana<em>**

"Excuse me, Chairman Durendal." The _Gondwana_'s commanding officer entered the office tentatively, and when Durendal nodded, stepped forward.

"I have a report here that the nearest Relay Station was destroyed when we fired the cannon." He said. "At this time, it is unclear exactly what caused its destruction."

- "But presumably, Commander Morgan's fleet failed to stop the enemy from either destroying the relay, or else causing sufficient damage that the relay was destroyed by the shot we fired." Durendal said evenly, though there was a hard edge to his voice.

- "That seems to be the case, sir."

Durendal did not reply for several moments, but when he did, he spoke slowly and carefully.  
>- "And what of the battle here. What is the situation?" He asked.<p>

- "At the moment, a stalemate; we are able to use our mobile suits to halt the enemy force's advance, but we cannot penetrate their lines to reach their ships."

- "And it is those ships that pose the biggest threat." Durendal commented. "Very well, Captain. Thank you."

The officer, understanding himself dismissed, left. Durendal sighed, his eyes closed. They were come to the final gambit; this was the last move in a global geopolitical chess game that had lasted for eleven months, with the fate of mankind in the balance. He had been checked, for now. But he still had his King in play...

"Rey." Durendal said when he summoned the young soldier to him. "Is the Legend ready to deploy?"

- "Yes, sir." Rey replied flatly, respectfully.

- "Then I would like for you to launch immediately. You understand your role in this, don't you?" Durendal asked, looking carefully at the younger man, whose expression remained inscrutable.

- "Of course, sir." Rey said, and saluted.

- "Then go." Durendal said.

Rey left, heading straight down to the massive supercarrier's spacious ready room, where he changed into his flight suit. That task accomplished, he headed to the cavernous hangar, where he pushed off the wall and floated towards the dark, dormant form of the Legend Gundam.

He boarded and activated the machine with barely a second's consideration of what he was about to do. Soon, the Legend was ready. And so was he.

"This is Rey Za Burrel. Legend Gundam, I'm taking off!"

And the dark Gundam launched through the Gondwana's enormous catapult and shot forward, into the fray.

**TO BE CONTINUED...**


	35. Phase 35: The Final Battlefield

**_AUTHOR'S__ NOTE:_**The second and final part of the last battle, which corresponds roughly to Phase 50 of the original series.  
>Not much to say, but read on, enjoy, and please review.<p>

* * *

><p><strong>PHASE 35: The Final Battlefield<strong>

**Lunar orbit, en route to Daedalus**  
><strong>LHM-BB01 <em>Minerva<em>**

While Athrun led the forces under his command towards the Relay Station, the rest of the fleet under Yzak's command set a course towards the moon, their intent being to attack the base itself and to destroy the cannon.

They knew the base would be heavily defended. Probably, there would not be very many ships; the maximum they might find there was about twenty, roughly the same number as the ZAFT Second Home Defense Fleet, Second Battle Group, which was under Yzak's command for this operation.

But in addition to the Second and his own three ships, Yzak was accompanied by two Orb Union Izumo-class carriers, which were superior to the Nazca and Laurasia-classes in firepower, better-armored, and carried more than twice the number of mobile suits; The _Minerva_ itself had a slightly lower carrying capacity, but was faster and better armed, as well as equally heavily armored.  
>Then he had the Alliance's Agamemnon-class <em>Ectorius<em> and its escorts. And deadlier still, the stealth heavy assault carrier _Alakhshya_, which at that moment was making a covert approach, on the Minerva's flank, its Mirage Colloid Stealth System active.

However, the enemy had the _Gondwana_. Though relatively lightly armed for its size, the gigantic mega-carrier could carry up to five hundred mobile suits on its own. This meant that Yzak and his allies would face a mobile suit force at least twice the size of their own. It was very unlikely, Yzak thought, that they would be able to get out without taking heavy losses. Their best bet would be for Athrun to rapidly deal with the relay station and move in to reinforce them.

_'This is going to be fucking tough.'_ Yzak thought to himself.

Because of the numerical advantage of the enemy mobile suit force, Yzak, Colonel Kisaka, and Captain Badgiruel had decided to split their forces and attack on multiple fronts, in order to prevent the defending fleet from concentrating their forces in a single area and overwhelming them with sheer numbers.

Commander Drake, the commander of the Second, would attack the base from the south, while Admiral Grant of the _Ectorius_ would lead his forces, accompanied by the Kusanagi and the Susanoo, in an attack from the north. The Alakhshya would be held in reserve, flying cloaked in formation above and astern of the _Minerva_, which would attack from a third direction shortly after Drake and Grant launched the initial two-pronged attack.

Once Athrun had eliminated the relay station, he would lead his forces directly towards the moon to reinforce the forces already attacking.

"Distance 9000 to target." Bart Heim announced from his station monitoring the ship's sensors.

- "Upgrade to Condition Red." Yzak ordered.

- "Going to Condition Red." Abby announced across the ship's PA system. "Going to Condition Red. All pilots board your machines and stand by for launch."

As the announcement rang out, the ship's thirteen pilots - Commander Joule excepted - stood. Shinn, Lunamaria and Stella were out the doors first, followed by the other pilots of the ship's mobile suit force – two DOM Troopers, four GOUF Igniteds, four ZAKU Warriors.

Lunamaria and Stella headed for the central catapult, where they each boarded their respective Core Splendor.  
>Shinn boarded his machine and initiated the Destiny's startup sequence, then waited for the order to launch.<p>

"This time," Shinn muttered as he too counted down the minutes to the attack, "We're going to end this – Once and for all."

On the _Minerva_'s bridge, preparations were continuing as well. Yzak checked that the _Voltaire_ and _Rousseau_ were in position to port and starboard of his own ship. The three vessels were moving at very low altitude to evade detection for as long as possible. His sensors could not see the Alakhshya, but he knew it was in position as well.

"Load Fafnirs in bow tubes 1 through 4, Neidhart in all missile launchers. Activate Tristans and Isoldes." Yzak ordered.

- "All weapons systems active, all tubes loaded." Chen Jian Ye replied at the ship's combat systems console.

- "Stand by to fire on my command!" Yzak replied, glancing at the chronograph on his monitor.

In the _Gondwana_'s control room, the gigantic mega-carrier's crew was on edge as they watched the approach of a sizable fleet closing in towards the nearest Relay Station.

"_Hirschfelder_ reports they are entering combat with enemy vessels at Relay Station 1." The CIC reported to the commander. "They are reporting twenty ZAFT vessels, plus one Orb carrier and an Alliance strike group, as well as the _Eternal_."

- "The _Eternal_ is there?" Durendal mused when he heard. "That is intriguing. I have to wonder where that vessel has been these past four years."

Suddenly, the CIC made a report that changed the situation, as Daedalus itself came under attack.  
>- "Enemy vessels detected! Yellow 135, distance 3,000. Checking thermal patterns…two Orb Union Izumo-class, one Alliance Agamemnon-class, plus ten Nelson-class and Drake-class." The CIC reported. "Also detecting a second formation attacking from Yellow 535, distance 3,200…they're ZAFT vessels, sir! Confirming ten Nazca-class and Laurasia-class!"<p>

- "Launch mobile suit teams!" Captain Abbot, the _Gondwana_'s commanding officer, ordered. "Escort ships move to intercept, prepare for anti-ship and anti-mobile suit combat."

- "Multiple launch transients detected, sir! Missiles incoming!"

- "Intercept them!"  
>What point-defenses were available were immediately activated even as the Gondwana's twelve-ship escort fleet split into two groups, each formation moving to engage the incoming enemy fleets even as they launched their mobile suits. At the same time, the mobile suits onboard the Gondwana herself began to launch, with more than a hundred units launching to support the thirty-six machines that were deploying from the two escort groups.<p>

Meanwhile, the Orb Fleet on the one hand, and the ten vessels of the ZAFT First Home Defense Fleet, Second Battle Group opened fire on the enemy formation, with the Alliance ships unleashing a second barrage of missiles, followed by a volley of cannonfire from one direction, while the ZAFT ships unleashed their own artillery.

The Daedalus defense fleets thus found themselves caught in a crossfire between two numerically superior forces, with disastrous results.

Three of the twelve ships escorting the _Gondwana_ were destroyed in the initial barrage, while four more sustained varying degrees of damage.

The remaining ships counterattacked immediately, and the Second Group lost two ships to the attack, while the Alliance Forces lost one of their Drake-class escorts.

Far behind the Daedalus Fleet's defensive lines, the _Gondwana_ alone remained unassailed, with Commander Abbot directing the defense.

At the same time, the two enemy mobile suit forces closed in on each other, and at last the two formations crashed together.

Each leading a five-unit team off the _Voltaire_ and _Rousseau_, Dearka Elsman and Shiho Hahnenfuss - he as ever in his trusty Gunner ZAKU Warrior, she in a two-tone dark-blue GOUF Ignited - led the assault.

The enemy had a two-to-one advantage in numbers, but many of the pilots were recent recruits, whose experience was limited to the rare engagements to have occurred in space since this new war began.  
>Conversely, the Second and the Joule Team had relatively far more experienced pilots, many of them veterans of the First War.<p>

So when a large formation of enemy mobile suits closed in, trying to move towards the ships, Dearka's team took up a position to the rear, supported by the point-defense systems and missiles of the _Voltaire_, and opened fire on the approaching units, cutting off their advance even as three of them were cut down in the initial assault.

Then Shiho's team split up and attacked, from the sides, leaving the enemy formation with only two choices: retreat or die.

The enemy forces fired, targeting the six ZAKUs led by Dearka, but the formation defended, blocking the assault, then counterattacked even as Shiho's six mobile suits opened fire as well.

The attacking forces scattered, but fully one third of the twenty-four unit group were eliminated in that assault.

Drawing the "Carnwennan" beam sword, Shiho closed in and attacked, overwhelming the lead unit and severing both its arms, leaving it incapable of further combat, while her wing provided cover fire, and Dearka's six Blaze and Gunner ZAKUs laid down a withering artillery barrage.  
>Within minutes, the enemy units were all defeated.<p>

At the same time, the two Izumo-class ships had launched their own mobile suits, a total of thirty-two Astrays and Murasames, together with almost eighty Daggers and Windams.  
>Half of the slower, less advanced Daggers were tasked for rear-line support using the Doppelhorn and Launcher Strikers, along with a quarter of the Windams. Of the rest, the majority were equipped with Aile Strikers, giving them speed and maneuverability almost on par with the GOUF Ignited.<p>

Leading the charge, the Orb forces tore into the defending mobile suit forces, the faster and more agile Murasames evading many of the enemy attacks. But despite their skill and the superiority of their machines, the sheer numbers of the Daedalus defense forces made it difficult for them to break through, something which was clear to Captain Natarle Badgiruel as she stood on the bridge of the _Alakhshya_, watching the timer on her monitor count down.

"Phase 1 is under way. 360 seconds to Phase 2." Her XO announced.

- "Thank you, Commander Valentine." She replied. Then she hit a button on her console. "Major, what's the status of our mobile suit team?"

- "All units are standing by for take-off." Major Sven Cal Bayan replied evenly from the Strike Noir's cockpit. His machine, as well as Mudie's Blu Duel, were in line for launch as soon as they got the all-clear.

- "Good." Natarle answered. Then she glanced up.  
>"A stalemate, already." She commented. "Our ships have the advantage and most of our pilots are more experienced, but their numbers are overwhelming... I'm starting to wonder if maybe we might not make it out alive."<p>

She shook her head. She had faced severe odds before. And that kind of thinking had no place on the battlefield anyway.  
>There was far too much at stake. She watched the counter as the seconds ticked by. 5...4...3...2...1...zero.<p>

It was time.

"Activate Lohengrin one and two, Gottfrieds one through six. Load Sledgehammers in tubes 1 through 20, Korinthos in 21 through 38." She ordered. "Prepare to deactivate Mirage Colloid once we open fire."  
>Her orders were immediately carried out.<p>

"Lohengrins 1 and 2, FIRE!" She ordered.  
>Two blasts of energy tore across space, seemingly from nowhere, and into the formation of defending ZAFT ships. A massive barrage of "Sledgehammer" anti-ship missiles followed, then the <em>Alakhshya<em>, even as its Mirage Colloid Stealth System gradually deactivated, revealing the jet-black vessel, opened fire with its six dual 225cm "Gottfried" high-energy beam cannons.

At the same time, from its position below and slightly ahead of the _Alakhshya_, the _Minerva_ unleashed its own barrage, from the bow Isolde, three Tristans, and forty-four missile launch tubes, discharging four MMI-M382S "Fafnir-S" heavy missiles from its bow tubes, and a massive volley of "Neidhart" heavy missiles from the five four-tube launchers mounted along each side of its hull.

The result could only be described as a massacre. Of the Daedalus escort fleet's nine remaining ships, four were completely obliterated by the assault, and two of the ones that managed to survive the onslaught suffered significant damage. The attack also destroyed more than thirty mobile suits caught in the line of fire.

"Launch mobile suit team!" Natarle ordered, and the _Alakhshya_'s four linear catapults opened, disgorging the Strike Noir, Blu Duel, and two Hyperion-Gs. Two more Hyperion-Gs and the ship's six Windams - two Doppelhorns, four Aile - followed, immediately attacking the enemy force.

Instantly the enemy responded, with a formation of mixed ZAKU Warriors and GOUF Igniteds, led by a single DOM Trooper, attack the approaching Alliance forces.

The Aile Windams and Dagger scattered, while the Doppelhorn and Launcher units opened fire from the rear, forcing the attacking enemy units to break off their attack. Only the DOM Trooper continued moving, using its beam shield to block the attack and close in on the rear-line units.

That's when Sven and Mudie struck, opening fire on the DOM from behind - he with his Strike Noir's twin linear cannons, she with a 35cm "Gáe Bulg" hyper bazooka. A weapon initially developed for her machine's predecessor, the original GAT-X102 Duel Gundam, and never deployed. Not normally a weapon used by the fast, close-combat-oriented Blu Duel, but necessary in this instance.

The DOM avoided the attacks easily, then turned to counter. Based on the powerful bazooka, its pilot determined that the wingless Duel is both the greater threat and the easier target, and accelerates, drawing its own beam saber.

A mistake.

Mudie, a sneer of contempt on her face, tosses the bazooka aside and engages the Blu Duel's array of thrusters, literally vaulting over the DOM, then instantly deployed her two beam guns and fired at the DOM from directly above, into its main body, causing catastrophic internal damage. Sven then activated the 30mm gatling gun mounted to his machine's shield, which poured a hail of depleted-uranium shells into its torso, killing the pilot and consummating the machine's destruction.

Meanwhile, the four Hyperion-Gs engaged against the seven enemy machines, blocking attacks using their "Armure Lumière" lightwave shields before countering with the powerful "Forfanterie" cannons. The nimble GOUF Igniteds avoided the attacks easily, only to then be engaged by the equally maneuverable Aile Windams and Daggers.

The ZAKU Warriors were not so fortunate, and within a short period of time the entire formation was destroyed.  
>The 501st had taken no losses, nor even any damage. Reorganizing their formation, the twelve mobile suits resumed combat, moving in and continuing to engage the enemy forces.<p>

At the same time, the same order was issued by Yzak from the bridge of the _Minerva_, and instantly the three catapults opened, with the Destiny Gundam being the first to launch from the starboard catapult, while the two Impulse Gundams deployed slowly from the central catapult, with Shinn hanging back to provide cover while the two Impulses docked and prepared for launch.

Behind them, the other ten mobile suits - two Blaze DOM Troopers, four GOUF Igniteds, and an equal number of ZAKU Warriors - launched as well. Two of the ZAKUs equipped Blaze Wizards, while the other two had Gunner Wizards. The ten mobile suits formed up in two lines, with the four ZAKUs to the rear and the DOMs and GOUFs in the front, and immediately moved in and began to fire on the enemy mobile suit forces.

Meanwhile, the three Gundams adopted an inverted wedge formation, with Lunamaria's Blast Impulse in the rear to provide cover fire, and the faster Destiny and Storm Impulse at the front.

In the old days of the First Bloody Valentine War, before the rollout of the GAT-01 Strike Dagger, it used to be said that it took five Möbius mobile armor units to be able to even stand a chance of engaging a single GINN in equal terms. When a twelve-mobile suit formation from the Daedalus defense force engaged, their pilots learned the hard way that even at five-to-one, they did not stand a chance against the likes of the Destiny Gundam or Stella's Storm Impulse.

When the enemy force attacked, the three Gundams instantly activated their "Validus Fulgor" beam shields, blocking the attacks easily.  
>Then, the Destiny and the Storm Impulse moved into action, as Shinn drew a single "Moralltach" heavy anti-ship beam sword, while Stella drew both "Caliburn" beam swords.<p>

Shinn first engaged a GOUF Ignited, which tried to parry the Moralltach using its Carnwennan beam sword. But the more powerful Moralltach overwhelmed the enemy unit's weapon, cutting the blade in half, and Shinn followed up with a point-blank shot to the main camera with the "Palma Fiocina", before severing both arms, then cutting the GOUF in half just below the waist, low enough to sever both legs without destroying the cockpit.  
>Then he deployed the twin "Megálos Kerberos" beam cannons and fired, destroying two of the attacking mobile suits.<p>

Stella, meanwhile, found herself engaged by a second GOUF Ignited. But her Impulse had two blades to the enemy's one, and even as she parried his attack, her second weapon slipped through a gap in the GOUF's defenses and thrust straight into its torso, cutting the cockpit in half and killing the pilot.  
>Alarms rang in her cockpit as two of the six remaining mobile suits fired on the Impulse. With no time to bring her beam shield to bear, she instead spun to face the incoming attackers and flung the crippled GOUF into the line of fire of their attacks. The damaged mobile suit worked as an impromptu shield, blocking the beam from striking the Impulse, and the attacks caused it to explode.<p>

Surging through the explosion, she fired the "Fenris" cannons at one, then bisected the other with the Caliburn. Stowing both blades, she drew her beam rifle and brought her beam shield to bear as two of the four remaining attackers fired at the Impulse. The counterattack was instantaneous, a volley of shots from her beam rifle that dismembered one of the enemy machines.  
>When the other tried to move into mêlée range, she ignited the "Beagalltach" beam blade, parrying the attack, then countered with a point-blank rifle shot to the cockpit.<p>

The other two turned their sights on Shinn, who activated the Destiny's Voilure Lumière and instantly evaded the shots they fired at him, charging at the first with the Moralltach and impaling it, before turning on the second and splitting it in two from head to hip.  
>The last two machines in the formation were a pair of Gunner ZAKU Warriors, which managed to slip past the two Gundams and set their sights on Lunamaria's Blast Impulse, firing their powerful "Orthros" beam cannons.<br>Lunamaria dodged one attack, blocking the other with the beam shield, then countered with the "Kerberos", dispatching both easily.

"Let's continue." Shinn said firmly, and the three machines, resuming their original formation, continued to engage as more enemy machines approached.

Suddenly, as Shinn was looking at their target, he saw that the barrel of the "Requiem" cannon was opening, and that the defending ships were shifting their positions.  
>He realized they were about to fire.<p>

"_Minerva_!" He hailed on an encrypted communications line. "They're preparing to fire Requiem!"

Yzak heard the warning, and immediately ordered his own forces to retreat and exit the line of fire.  
>However, when the cannon at last fired, two of the Alliance's Nelson-class ships were caught in the blast, as were two of the Second Group's Laurasia-class ships.<br>Two of the Daedalus Fleet's damaged ships, unable to retreat fast enough, were also destroyed, as were roughly twenty mobile suits on either side.

"That BASTARD!" Yzak yelled, slamming his fist into his console. "He fired before even his own forces were all out of the way."  
>He suddenly glanced at the secondary monitor that showed the status of the battle at the Relay Station. They were too far to be able to communicate effectively with Athrun's forces, but he hoped they would be able to evade the attack.<p>

As he carefully observed the relay station itself, he realized it was out of alignment. It would be destroyed by the cannon's own attack.  
>He smiled grimly. At least this meant that Athrun would be on his way soon.<p>

However, they were about to have other problems...

Onboard the _Gondwana_, Rey Za Burrel boarded his machine, the ZGMF-X66R Legend Gundam.  
>He activated the mobile suit, reflecting as he did so that regardless of who the enemy was, he would fight, to defend the Gondwana and Chairman Durendal.<p>

He knew very well that of all the forces presently attacking, there was only one machine that was even remotely capable of keeping up with his Legend, and that this meant he would have to face Shinn in battle, and probably to kill him.  
>He barely hesitated. If that was what he had to do, he would do it.<p>

Finally, he had clearance to launch.  
>"This is Rey Za Burrel." He said over the comms. "Legend Gundam, I'm taking off!"<p>

The Legend Gundam shot forward from the catapult, and Rey instantly activated the Voilure Lumière, which surged in a flash of blue light, as the Legend accelerated, its powerful beam rifle in hand, into the approaching forces.

A group of enemy mobile suits - Alliance units, he saw, plus a handful of Orb Murasames - moved in and engaged the Legend, firing missiles and beam rifles.  
>The Legend's 17.5mm CIWS spun to life, intercepting the missiles, and he easily dodged or blocked the enemy attacks using the Legend's superior speed and maneuverability, supplemented by his two "Solidus Fulgor" beam shields.<p>

He counterattacked by activating his DRAGOON System, deploying the six GDU-7X2 heavy weapon pods, which unleashed a torrent of beam cannonfire that obliterated the entire enemy formation.  
>Rey then deactivated the Voilure Lumière and contacted four mobile suits from the Daedalus defense force, using his authority as a member of FAITH to order them to form up on the Legend and move into combat.<p>

Onboard the _Gondwana_, Commander Abbot watched the battle unfold with some concern.  
>On the one hand, their numerically superior mobile suit forces, which still numbered more than seven hundred, were preventing the enemy's advance - mostly. On the other, despite the losses inflicted, the enemy still had the advantage in terms of number of ships, an advantage that had gotten only greater since the carnage wrought on their battle line by the two enemy flagships.<p>

Their own forces could not, despite their numbers, get through the enemy lines to attack the ships directly. The few that had had been insufficiently numerous, and the enemy was being canny enough to hold back approximately one third of their mobile suit forces to cover the ships, allowing them to obliterate the few small formations that had broken through the first attacking line.

Additionally, the Orb and Alliance forces in one area, and the Joule Team in another, led by their respective Gundams, were making significant progress in hindering their own forces and might even break through.

The deployment of the Legend, which had engaged the Orb and Alliance forces, had started to turn the tide, however. And despite his misgivings, Abbott remained confident that they would ultimately be able to win. The key was to maintain the stalemate, to make this a battle of attrition by preventing the enemy Gundams from using their technological and performance advantage to penetrate the defensive lines.  
>If they could do that, the battle was won.<p>

However, the conditions of the battlefield were once more about to change, as the _Gondwana's_ CIC reported the arrival of still more ships.

"Sir! Detecting a new enemy formation closing in from Green 430."

- "From the Relay Station?" Abbott asked.

- "Yes, sir." the CIC replied. "Checking thermal patterns...two Orb Izumo-class, four Alliance vessels, and a number of Nazca- and Laurasia-class ships. Thirty-four vessels total, sir."

Abbot blanched. 34 more ships meant, at minimum, two hundred additional mobile suits. Still not enough to even the odds, but the more ships the enemy had, the greater the chance of their breaking through.  
>- "What's their target?" Abbott asked.<p>

- "It looks like they're closing in on Requiem directly." the response came. "But they are just outside the cannon's line of fire."  
>Abbot swore. He had considered ordering the cannon fired at the approaching ships, which would by far have been the easiest solution.<br>But the enemy commander had preempted him by positioning his ships just outside the cannon's striking range, but still in a position to attack it directly.

- "Enemy vessel is deploying mobile suits, sir!" the CIC reported.

- "Redirect the Adnam Team and the Kingston Team. Send them to engage the enemy forces!" he ordered.

Even as they closed, Murrue Ramius's _Tsukiyomi_ succeeded in breaking through the enemy lines, exploiting a gap in the defense caused as a result of the damage wrought by the _Minerva_ and _Alakhshya_. Before the enemy ships were able to move in and close the gap, she targeted the closed barrel of the Requiem cannon.

"Lohengrins, FIRE!" she ordered, and the ship's two twin "Lohengrin" positron blaster cannons unleashed a torrent of destructive energy that obliterated several enemy mobile suits that were attempting to attack the ship, before directly striking the barrel of the weapon.

To no avail. A triple-layered positron reflector field activated over the closed barrel, blocking the ship's attack. At the same time, more enemy forces moved in, and Murrue ordered the ship to fall back even as the Argenteuil and its escorts fired into the enemy formation, while half of the two hundred and thirty mobile suits it carried moved in to attack the enemy forces.

Leading the charge were Hilda Harken, Herbert von Reinhardt, and Mars Simeon in their DOM Troopers, as well as the Knight Saviour Gundam and the Akatsuki.  
>"Hilda!" Athrun ordered. "Lead the main force to reinforce the 501st in Area E."<p>

- "Yes, sir!" Hilda replied. Though she had come to battle as a pilot of Orb, she now found herself under the command of a legend: Athrun Zala, the greatest pilot in the history of ZAFT. And the former fiancé of Lacus Clyne.  
>Neither she, nor her men, had any issues fighting under his orders, and their response was swift.<p>

Athrun, meanwhile, linked up with Cagalli and the Kinshu Team, which headed, escorted by a handful of GOUF Igniteds, in a different direction, his intention being to reinforce the Joule Team.  
>He had seen on his monitor the launch of a fast new model, which was tearing apart their lines, and guessed it to be the Legend. He knew that eventually it and the Destiny would meet, and he was determined to reinforce Shinn.<p>

A formation of enemy ZAKU Warriors attacked, firing beam rifles, "Orthros" beam cannons, and missiles at the approaching mobile suits. The six GOUF Igniteds opened fire, laying down a wall of suppressive fire using their forearm-mounted "Draupnir" machineguns, supported by the CIWS of the Orb Murasames and the Knight Saviour, which eliminated the missiles.

Cagalli's Akatsuki absorbed several enemy shots, destroying one of the Gunner ZAKU Warriors with its own redirected attack, then fired her own beam rifle into the formation, even as Athrun skillfully shot off the limbs of one of the enemy machines as it sought to engage his machine in close-quarters combat.

Alarms rang suddenly as the approaching formation found itself under attack, and Athrun swore as he realized that the Legend had struck.  
>He instantly activated his beam shield and took the Saviour defensive, while their escorts did likewise, with mixed success. Two of the GOUFs and one of the Murasames were destroyed.<p>

Cagalli's Akatsuki, protected by its Yata-no-Kagami armor, easily shrugged off the assault, as the enemy shots were absorbed and reflected.

Rey noticed this and withdrew his remotes, preventing any of them from being destroyed by the redirected attacks.

Then he deployed the two GDU-3X beam spike pods, which he knew would overwhelm those defenses, when his own sensors alerted him to an incoming attack, and he withdrew the remotes to prevent their being destroyed by the twin attack from the Knight Saviour's "Amfortas Kai" beam cannons.  
>He turned his beam rifle on the Saviour and immediately attacked, but Athrun shifted, avoiding the attack by millimeters, and countered with the "Hyper Fortis" beam cannons.<p>

Rey activated his beam shield, blocking the attack, then launched the six back-mounted heavy weapon pods, which moved to surround the Saviour.  
>Before Rey could fire, Athrun accelerated, drawing one of his two "Vajra Kai" beam sabers, and aimed a rising diagonal slash across the Legend's torso. The six remotes turned to track the Saviour, and even as Rey activated his beam shield and parried the attack, fired on the Saviour, with the Legend moving back out of the line of fire.<p>

Athrun withdrew and went defensive, using his machine's high speed and maneuverability, combined with his powerful beam shield, to avoid the enemy attacks.  
>Then he moved in again, with another hard thrust at the Legend.<p>

Rey drew one of his own "Vajra Kai" beam sabers, blocking the attack.  
>"You're out of your league, traitor." Rey spat as he blocked, then fell back and attempted to raise his beam rifle.<br>At near point-blank range, there was no way the Saviour could possibly evade.

Nor did he. Athrun shifted laterally, then brought his blade down, bisecting the weapon, before unleashing a devastatingly swift horizontal strike with his second beam saber, which Rey only narrowly avoided.

Cagalli, meanwhile, was engaged by the six GOUF Igniteds that had been Rey's escort, which were all armed with handheld gunlaunchers and, in one case, a 500mm recoilless cannon - shell-firing weapons, against which the Akatsuki's armor was worse than useless.

Fortunately, the seven remaining escort units were similarly armed, and when she narrowly avoided one attack, two of the GOUF Igniteds closed in on their brethren, firing their own weapons. Then the Murasames circled from around, catching the enemy formation in a pincer movement. With the enemy units preoccupied, Cagalli deployed the Akatsuki's "Oowashi" beam cannons and fired, destroying two of them. The escorts eliminated the others.

Seeing this, Rey deployed his eight GDU-5X2 medium weapon pods, which encircled the formation and fired.  
>All but two of the enemy mobile suits were able to avoid the attacks, and the two machines - one Murasame and one GOUF Ignited - were destroyed.<p>

At that moment, another formation, consisting of two DOM Troopers, four GOUF Ignited, and four ZAKU Warriors, moved in.  
>Suddenly, even as Cagalli fired into the approaching formation, another attack blasted in from above and behind, and looking up, Cagalli recognized the Destiny and Impulse Gundams.<p>

One of the DOM Troopers and two of the ZAKU Warriors were destroyed, while the others narrowly avoided both attacks.  
>The three machines split up, with the two Impulse Gundams converging on the Akatsuki, while the Destiny accelerated and peeled off to engage the Legend.<p>

"Shinn!" Athrun hailed when he recognized the Destiny.

Rey likewise recognized his former best friend, and immediately peeled off when the Destiny fired its beam rifle at the Legend, forcing him back.  
>"I don't really give a damn if Athrun decides to betray the PLANTs again." Rey commented coldly. "But I never would've thought that you of all people would be a traitor."<p>

- "Who's a traitor?" Shinn retorted, angrily but at the same time, sorrowful.

- "Anyone who opposes Chairman Durendal." Rey replied, and he deployed his DRAGOONs, firing on the Destiny.

Shinn activated the "Validus Fulgor" and "Voilure Lumière", evading or blocking the attacks. Rey, however, had anticipated this, and one of the two beam spike pods shot straight in towards the Destiny.  
>Shinn, seeing the attack, ejected the assault shield and threw it into the path of the incoming remote, which tore through it, barely slowing down. But that was enough, as Shinn drew a "Shining Edge" and activated it, the saber blade bisecting the remote, destroying it.<p>

At the same time, the Saviour threw its own "Flash Edge II" beam boomerang towards the Legend, but Rey tasked his DRAGOONs to intercept, destroying the weapon, then firing at the Saviour, which was forced to evade.

Then Rey deployed all fifteen of his remaining remotes, firing a massive barrage into the formation of mobile suits.

The Storm Impulse was, at that moment, engaging one of the two DOM Troopers, and when her sensors detected the incoming attack, Stella shoved the Impulse upwards, almost entirely avoiding the attack, which severed the Impulse's left leg.

The DOM Trooper, however, was not so fortunate, and the barrage obliterated it.

Lunamaria activated her beam shield, blocking the shots headed her way as well.  
>Then, when a number of the other machines closed in, she deployed and fired the "Kerberos" beam cannons and "Deluge" railguns, then followed up with a barrage from the Impulse's missile launchers, taking out three GOUF Igniteds.<p>

"Damn," she muttered as she glanced down at her power gauge. "I'm getting pretty low on power - only 62% left."  
>In that split second, six of the Legend's remotes surrounded the Blast Impulse.<p>

Rey knew that Lunamaria had to be the pilot of the Blast Impulse. But if she had chosen to side with the traitors, she too would pay the price, he mused dismissively as he mentally ordered the remotes to fire.

Stella saw what was happening, and broke off from her own opponent to move in, and at the last second Lunamaria too realized what was happening, and brought her beam shield to bear as she sought to evade the attack.

Too late. The barrage tore the Impulse to pieces, destroying the Blast Silhouette and severing the machine's limbs. Only the last-second activation of the "Validus Fulgor" prevented the destruction of the entire cockpit block, and even as the attacks tore her machine apart she pulled the lever that activated the ejection mechanism, jettisoning the chest and leg flyers.

"LUNAMARIA!" Shinn screamed, and he opened fire with every ranged weapon the Destiny had - directly at the Legend.

Rey activated his machine's Voilure Lumière, narrowly evading the attack. However, the salvo destroyed two of his DRAGOON pods.  
>The smoke cleared, and Shinn saw the Core Splendor.<p>

So did Athrun, and he instantly tasked two of the GOUF Igniteds and two of the remaining Murasames to cover the Core Splendor's retreat until it reached the Minerva.  
>Then, the four mobile suits - Shinn's Destiny, the Knight Saviour, the Storm Impulse and the Akatsuki turned towards the Legend, and all four attacked.<p>

Athrun unleashed the Knight Saviour's "Amfortas Kai" and "Hyper Fortis" cannons, while the Akatsuki fired the "Oowashi" beam cannons of the Akatsuki.  
>Rey, with the Legend's Voilure Lumière still active, evaded both attacks, but alarms rang in his cockpit as his movement placed him in the path of a direct attack from the Storm Impulse, firing its beam rifle and "Fenris" beam cannons. He blocked using his beam shield, then accelerated, using his machine's superior speed to close into close-quarters range, saber drawn, and he struck.<p>

Stella, however, was ready, and she ejected the Chest Flyer, which shot upwards in a wide arc, moving above the Legend, even as the Leg Flyer fell.  
>Recognizing the move, Rey tasked two of his remaining four GDU-X72 remotes to fire, but too late. Stella fired, from above and behind, an attack that blasted off the two flexible binders on its backpack, destroying two of the remotes, even as the other two left their rack and fired.<p>

The attack sheared off both of the Impulse's arms, taking with it the shield and beam rifle.  
>But the Impulse survived the attack, and steering the Leg Flyer, Stella moved it back into position and redocked, then fired again.<p>

This time, Rey pivoted around, beam shield ignited, blocking the attack, and deployed his ten remaining remotes.

Stella, guessing what was coming, preempted him.

She jettisoned the Chest and Silhouette Flyers as well as the Leg Flyer, even as the ten remotes fired.

The barrage obliterated the Chest and Leg Flyers, but the Core Splendor escaped, as did the Storm Silhouette, and Stella opened fire on the Legend again with the "Fenris" cannons, then threw it into a top-speed charge towards the Legend, using the distraction to break away.  
>Rey blocked the attack, but then the Storm Silhouette slammed into the Legend and exploded, throwing the Legend off-balance for an instant. By the time he had stabilized, the Core Splendor was moving out, and the Destiny closed in, blocking off any chance of an attack.<p>

"Athrun, Lady Cagalli!" Shinn asked. "Please, escort Stella to safety. I will deal with him."  
>Cagalli opened her mouth to protest, but the dangerous edge in Shinn's voice stopped her.<p>

- "Right. Be careful." She said.

- "Thanks." Shinn replied. In the cockpit of the Knight Saviour, Athrun shook his head.

The handful of mobile suits they were engaging broke off and converged on the Core Splendor, but the faster Akatsuki and Saviour caught up easily.

Then, a green-white burst of energy soared into the enemy formation, destroying the remaining DOM Trooper, even as three more DOMs rushed in, Gigaplex bazookas held high.  
>Athrun recognized their colors, and he saw behind them Canard Pars's white Hyperion-G.<p>

Some distance behind them, one of the Orb ships, with an escort of mixed Alliance and Orb mobile suit. After a second, he recognized Colonel Ramius's Tsukiyomi, and briefly wondered where the hell the Izumo was.

The three DOM Troopers encircled the formation and opened fire, even as Athrun accelerated.  
>"Stella, head towards the <em>Tsukiyomi<em>." He said. "It's much closer than the _Minerva_."

- "Roger that." She said, and altered course, moving past the four new arrivals.

Athrun, meanwhile, turned his attention back to the battle, as a pair of GOUF Igniteds swung their "Slayer Whip" at the Saviour, aiming for its arms. Athrun evaded both, then drew the Saviour's two beam rifles and fired, blasting off both heads, then he shot off the left arms of each one, taking their shield - and the "Carnwennan" sabers - away from them, leaving only one Draupnir to each machine. Then he blasted off the other arm.  
>"That's enough." He said.<p>

"Fuck," Canard swore in the cockpit of his Hyperion-G. "Is there no end to these bastards?"  
>He leveled his beam submachine gun and fired at a ZAKU Warrior that was closing in on him, shredding its torso apart, when an alarm rang in his cockpit. Out of ammunition. And he had used his last spare magazine.<br>"Damn it." He swore. "He tossed the weapon aside, determined to keep fighting with what weapons he did have available.

Onboard the _Gondwana_, Captain Abbot looked concerned as Gilbert Durendal asked for a status report.

"A stalemate, sir." He said. "The Legend made a great deal of progress in forcing the enemy offense back, but it has been engaged by the Destiny. With it contained, I am afraid that the enemy is beginning to once again make some headway."

- "I see..." Durendal said pensively. "How much of the enemy formation is within striking range of Requiem?"

- "Ten, maybe fifteen percent." Abbot replied. "But more importantly, a very significant portion of our own mobile suit forces is also engaged against the enemy in the cannon's path."

- "How much?" Durendal asked.

- "Four of our ships. About 30 percent of our mobile suits." Abbot replied

- "Have the mobile suits begin to fall back - try to draw the enemy forces in." Durendal ordered. "And prepare to fire."

At that moment, however, the CIC spoke up.  
>"New enemy contacts detected!" He said. "Battleship class, looks like twelve of them. Distance 7,000, from Green 045."<p>

- "WHAT?!" Abbot exclaimed.

- "Multiple launch transients detected! They're launching mobile suits - no, it looks like mobile armors!"

And indeed, the Agamemnon-class carriers _Sarpedon_ and _Idomeneus_ launched their full compliments of TS/MA-5B Euclid mobile armors, while twelve more took off from the Nelson-class escort ships, accompanied by 32 additional mobile suits.

Not one of the ships was completely intact, all of them showed signs of damage. But two full Carrier Strike Groups had been mustered from the small portion of Arzachel that had escaped destruction, and had been launched, many with skeleton crews, but all with full compliments of mobile weapons.  
>The ships opened fire, even as the battered Coalition Fleet, led by Yzak in the <em>Minerva<em> and Captain Badgiruel onboard the _Alakhshya_, did likewise.

Unable to prevent the advance of the fast, heavily armed and shielded mobile armors, the Daedalus Defense Fleet's lines began to crumble under the renewed assault, as gaps began to open in the defensive line, and the more numerous formations of Coalition ships began to close in and open fire on the Gondwana and its few remaining escorts.

In the Destiny's cockpit, Shinn, breathing heavily, looked over at his opponent. The Legend Gundam, almost a twin to his own Destiny, except for its massive firepower, whereas the Destiny had a balanced armament that made it equally adept at combat at all ranges.

"Why would you betray the Chairman, Shinn?" Rey asked.

- "Durendal is the one who betrayed us, when he opened fire on Arzachel and killed President Baum." Shinn replied. "Durendal doesn't want peace, he just wants to rule the Earth; he's no better than Jibril, why can't you see that?!"

- "Stand down, Shinn!" Rey demanded. "Otherwise, I'm going to kill you."

Shinn was shocked for a moment, that Rey, whom he'd loved as a brother, would be so willing to kill him.  
><em>'So be it.'<em> He thought, resigning himself.

- "No, Rey." He said, and there was sorrow in his tone, but his resolve was firm nonetheless. "You won't."  
>He took a deep breath, and as he did he felt his awareness expand, his senses become more focused.<p>

Then, Rey attacked, deploying the single remaining beam spike pod, as well as the ten weapon pods he had that remained. The ten pods fired, but Shinn was ready.

With the Destiny's Voilure Lumière engaged, he went totally defensive, activating both beam shields and blocking or evading the attacks. He spotted the beam spike moving towards him, turned to face it, and engaged the "Gryphon II" leg beam blades, then kicked the spike, throwing the weapon off course as blade met blade and the Destiny's superior momentum rocked the much lighter pod off-balance.  
>The follow-through was instantaneous, a point-blank shot from the "Palma Fiocina" that obliterated the pod.<p>

Rey immediately countered with a second barrage from the DRAGOONs, and even as Shinn deployed the two "Megálos Kerberos" cannons a volley from the Legend's remotes destroyed them both, at the same time blasting one of the two "Moralltach" swords off its mount on his machine's back.

Shinn fell back, increasing the output of the Voilure Lumière, and once again went fully defensive, as he drew both the "Shining Edge" and threw them, one, then the other directly at the Legend.  
>As he'd expected, Rey tasked the DRAGOONs to intercept, and he fired the "Palma Fiocina" cannon and beam rifle, destroying two of them instantly.<p>

"Stop this, Rey!" Shinn asked once again. "What Durendal is trying to do is not peace. It's a dictatorship!"

- "So what?" Rey retorted. "If anyone is going to attack the PLANTs, then they have to be destroyed."

- "The PLANTs have rejected Durendal's scheme!" Shinn yelled. "Are you going to destroy them because of it?"

Shinn's words took Rey by surprise, and for a second, his concentration wavered.  
>- "That's garbage!" He retorted. "Durendal has the only real solution! Destroying the weapons of all enemies of the PLANTs is the only way to end this!"<br>As he spoke, he tasked his six remaining DRAGOONs to surround the Destiny and fire, successfully blasting off the Destiny's right arm and left leg.

- "No, it's not!" Shinn replied. He accelerated still further, firing the beam rifle until he destroyed two more remotes, leaving four.

The remaining pods moved in and fired, hitting the rifle. Shinn tossed the weapon aside as another shot carved a deep gouge in the Destiny's head, even as the Legend closed in, sabers drawn.

However, while both machines had the exact same thrust, the Legend outweighed its twin by nearly ten tons, which meant that the Destiny was still faster and more agile. Despite the severely hindered AMBAC capabilities due to the loss of two limbs, that furthermore meant several tons less from its weight, for nearly the same amount of thrust.

Shinn fired the "Palma Fiocina" at the rapidly-approaching Legend's right arm, blasting its hand off, even as he tweaked the controls and the Destiny twisted.  
>He ignited the beam blade on his remaining leg, parrying the strike, even as he turned his beam gun on that arm and fired.<p>

At that range, Rey could not evade, and the arm was blasted off at the shoulder. He retreated, tasked his four remaining remotes to open fire.

Shinn drew the sole remaining weapon he had left - the Moralltach. He adjusted his position, slammed the throttles to their stops, and charged, even as the four remotes fired, blasting off the Destiny's head, left wing, and remaining leg.

The Moralltach penetrated the Legend's armor in the lower torso, just a few feet below the cockpit. Straight through the reactor.

"Rey." He said haltingly, as he felt the tears begin to flow. "I honestly wish it hadn't come to this..." Shinn said. And he drew the single blade upwards, through the cockpit block, incinerating it and its pilot, even as the machine's stricken reactor exploded, ripping it apart.

And even as the explosion threw the shattered remains of the Destiny back, Shinn wept bitterly at what he had been forced to do.

As the enemy fleet continued to move in, despite staggering losses, the Daedalus Defense fleet slowly fell back, as the Requiem Cannon's barrel slowly began to open.

"Captain Abbot?" Durendal asked.

- "Ten percent of our forces still in the line of fire." He reported. "Twenty-three percent of the enemy ships are within range."

- "And what about the cannon?" Durendal asked.

- "Charge is at 42%." Abbott replied.

- "That will do." Durendal said. "Fire."

But before Abbott could give the order, the attacking fleet played its final card, as the _Izumo_ made its move.  
>With its Mirage Colloid Stealth System still active, the <em>Izumo<em> had, at the beginning of the battle, launched its own mobile suits, which had mingled with those of the other ships, and the carrier had quietly crept into position as the battle raged.

Now, with the defense line collapsing, its commanding officer gave the order, and the ship fired its four positron cannons across the enemy formation, causing massive damage among the mobile suit forces and destroying two of the remaining ships.

Then, as the positron reflectors deactivated and the barrel of Requiem began to open, Yzak saw a breach in the enemy line's defenses.  
>"Sierra Antares One to all vessels!" Yzak roared, "Open fire with everything you've got! Target: the <em>Gondwana<em>!"

The _Minerva_ fired its "Tannhäuser" positron cannon, while the _Alakshya_ and the Orb ships fired their "Lohengrins", directly across the battlefield at the gigantic mega-carrier.  
>The onslaught struck the carrier head-on, fatally damaging its entire lower section, destroying its engine blocks.<br>The damage disabled its attitude control systems, and the crippled vessel began to fall.

The vessel struck the open barrel of the Requiem cannon and exploded in a savage conflagration that tore the barrel of the weapon apart, setting off a chain reaction that caused massive damage to that entire section of the base, triggering a collapse that buried it under millions of tons of rubble.

Only a handful of the twelve escort ships remained. With their flagship destroyed and Durendal dead, the commander of one of the ships made the decision to surrender, firing off the appropriate signal flare, and the others followed suit.

From inside the remains of the Destiny Gundam, Shinn saw the detonation, and then he saw the signal flares. Removing his helmet, he wiped the tears from his eyes with his sleeve.  
>He ejected the remains of the Destiny, as the escape system that contained its reactor compartment and cockpit block began to move, simultaneously broadcasting an emergency beacon.<p>

Not far away, Athrun's Knight Saviour picked up the beacon, and he steered towards it. He recovered the escape pod, and steered it towards the _Minerva_.  
>Boarding the ship, he disembarked to find Shinn leaving the escape pod, and he saw that his young friend's eyes were red, as if he'd been crying.<p>

"Shinn!" Lunamaria yelled as she ran and threw herself in his arms, hugging him. They remained that way for several moments, and when Lunamaria finally stepped back, Shinn looked around until he found Stella, who had returned from the Tsukiyomi to the Minerva.

Releasing the helmet he held, he pushed off the surface of the escape pod, even as she too leaped towards him. The two embraced in midair, and watching, Athrun smiled.

The _Gaensler, Susanoo_, and other ships arrived not long afterwards, carrying the wounded. Once they were assembled, Athrun, Yzak, and the Alliance commanders agreed to finish the job, and with one last barrage, Daedalus Base's destruction was completed.

Their onerous task completed, the Alliance ships began to fall back towards the sole remaining base on the moon, Theophilus, while the Orb fleet headed back towards Earth, returning to Ame-no-Mihashira.

Hilda Harken, Herbert von Reinhardt, and Mars Simeon had boarded the _Argenteuil _as the battle ended. They remained there as the Orb fleet left, and were present to greet Athrun when at last he returned to his ship.

"Commander Zala." Hilda said, saluting. Then she introduced her two teammates.

- "Welcome aboard the _Argenteuil_." Athrun acknowledged. "Ad thank you for your help, out there."

- "Our pleasure, sir." She replied. "Are we returning to the PLANTs?"

Athrun nodded.  
>"We are." He said.<p>

Onboard the _Minerva_, Shinn, Stella, and Lunamaria stood on the bridge, as the ZAFT ships were gradually reorganized into two large fleets, under the overall command of the Joule and Zala Teams.

"You did an incredible job out there, kid." Yzak said.

- "Thank you, sir." Shinn replied hollowly.

- "I'm not going to give you some bullshit speech about what happened." He said. "It's not my style, and anyway words don't mean a fucking thing. I know how close you and Rey were. What you had to do...that had to be hard."

Shinn nodded.  
>- "I just...I wish I could've saved him." He said. He shook his head. Then he turned to look at Stella, finding some solace in her presence, and in Lunamaria's. If Rey had been his brother, Lunamaria was his sister. And the fact that she was there with him was comforting.<p>

- "What happens now, sir?" Lunamaria asked.

- "Now?" Yzak replied. "Now it's time to go home."

Shinn looked out the bridge window, and saw the sun in the distance. And despite his own sorrow, he sighed in relief, and smiled.

At last, it was over, once and for all.


	36. Epilogue: To a New Tomorrow

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** Well gang, this is at last the end. It has been a long project, but I have had a lot of fun writing it, personally. I hope you all have enjoyed reading it.

Here is a little bit of a final note, just to put the finishing touches on the story and wrap up the select few loose ends that are remaining. A lot of original stuff, a bit drawn from FINAL PLUS. Enjoy.

* * *

><p><strong>EPILOGUE: To a New Tomorrow<strong>

**December 24, C.E. 75  
><strong>**PLANT Homeland  
><strong>**Aprilius One**

Eileen Canaver entered the great room that served as the primary meeting place of the PLANT Supreme Council, and surveyed the enormous round table.

She saw only three vacant chairs – that of the Council Chairman and the two seats occupied by the representatives of the Diplomatic Committee, including the one she herself had occupied in her former position as its Chair.

The nine people currently seated at the table stood as she approached and sat in her place, the seat only so recently occupied by the late Gilbert Durendal. Before that, Patrick Zala, and before him her good friend and colleague, Siegel Clyne.

The remaining members of the Supreme Council had just taken their seats when two people strode through the still-open doors.

The first to enter was Taras Kazaevski, of Februarius City, who had been elected to the Supreme Council to fill the void left by the expulsion of Durendal, who had been the Representative from Februarius City as well as the Supreme Council Chairman. Behind him came the new Chairman of the Diplomatic Committee, who had replaced another old friend and colleague of Eileen's, Richard Schreiber, who had retired.

Both men wore the same long, dark blue overcoat and dress pants, white shirt, and red tie as the other ten individuals assembled.  
>But the latter was far younger than his colleague, and indeed than any of his peers; he was perhaps, Eileen reflected, the youngest person to have ever been appointed to the Supreme Council.<p>

But when he had been appointed to Eileen's former post over the more senior Kazaevski, many were surprised. Eileen, however, was not.  
>The two men greeted the table respectfully, then moved to their assigned seats.<p>

- "Chairman Zala, Representative Kazaevski." Eileen Canaver stated, "You both are very nearly late."

- "Forgive me, Chairwoman Canaver." Athrun Zala replied deferentially. "I was speaking with President Marshall and took a little longer than expected."

It was the first time the Council met since Athrun's controversial appointment, and he had been given the onerous task of serving as the point man on the negotiations between the PLANTs, Orb, and the Alliance in the wake of the recently-ended war.

Eileen Canaver herself had also been very closely involved, for which Athrun was grateful. But Athrun's unique experience with both the PLANTs and Orb – and to a lesser extent the Alliance, having led forces from all three nations in battle – meant that he was in a peculiarly effective position to coordinate between the parties involved, because he was known and trusted by, among others, President Marshall as well as several of the Alliance's most senior military officers.

- "Very well then. Since we are now all present, I can call this meeting to order." Canaver said. "The reason we are here is, of course, the matter of the negotiations with Orb and the Alliance. And I propose that Chairman Zala update us on the most recent developments in the negotiations."

Athrun stood, withdrawing a thick sheaf of documents from the leather briefcase he carried.  
>- "Presidents Marshall and Rodgers have been in contact, and have formalized reconciliation between their two nations along the lines envisioned by the late President Baum." Athrun reported. "At the same time, both President Marshall and Representative Athha of Orb have been putting pressure on President Rodgers as well as Prime Minister Zhang Yunsheng of the Republic of East Asia, and the Diplomatic Committee has been in contact with both."<p>

- "Well done." Eileen replied impassively, though she was impressed.

- "Thank you." Athrun replied. Then he handed each of them a thick, bound document. "This is the most recent draft copy of the treaty that the Diplomatic Committee has received. We have assurances from the USSA, African Community, and South African Union that they will support the treaty, and Representative Athha and President Marshall have done so as well."

The assembled council read through the document.  
>- "Very impressive." Ezalia Joule commented aloud as she did so, and many of the others nodded approvingly.<p>

- "I agree." Chairwoman Canaver replied.

- "At this time, I would like to bring this matter to a formal vote before the Supreme Council; the ratification of the treaty as it stands." Athrun requested once all twelve assembled members of the Council had read the document.

- "Very well." Chairwoman Canaver granted. And when she asked the room at large whether they would ratify the treaty, eleven hands rose in assent, then Athrun raised his own hand as well. The vote was unanimous.

**Junius Three**

Night was falling across the sparsely populated agricultural colony of Junius Three, one of eleven colonies in the sixth City in the PLANTs, dedicated to growing the food the nation needs to feed itself.

On the porch of a small single-story house on the edge of one of the many artificial streams that provide the colony with its critical water supply, a pale, dark-haired young man sits in contemplative quietude, watching the sun disappear over the horizon.

It had been a few weeks since the Second Battle of Daedalus ended what was now being called the Second Junius War. For his accomplishments in the battle, Shinn Asuka had been awarded the Order of the Nebula – his second one. The coveted medal hung, with his other decorations, in a little alcove in the living room, along with the two cracked halves of a seashell, hung on tattered strings, and an old pink mobile phone.

Most prominent in the alcove was a photograph several years old now, showing a group of young cadets fresh out of ZAFT's military academy, still holding the scrolls they had been given at their graduation.

Through the open door of the house a big black lab padded out of the house and laid its big head on its master's knee. Without looking at the dog, he absently scratched behind its ear.  
>Then, the dog raised its head and let out a gruff bark, looking past him at the road that passed by the house as a long black car pulled up.<p>

He stood, and walked around to meet the car as its sole occupant stepped out.  
>At the same time, a young woman in a simple, two-tone blue dressed stepped out of the little house. The dying sunlight glinted off a gold ring on her finger.<p>

The new arrival was taller and formally dressed, with a long dark blue coat over a white shirt, red tie, and dark blue trousers.  
>"Chairman Zala." Shinn addressed the new arrival, who shook his head.<p>

- "Am I going to have to tell you again, Shinn? It's Athrun."

Shinn Asuka smiled at his friend and former commander, who now occupied the exalted position of Chairman of the Supreme Council's Diplomatic Committee.  
>- "It's good to see you again, Athrun."<p>

- "Likewise." Athrun replied, looking from Shinn to Stella. "It's good seeing you both. You seem to be doing well."

- "So're you." Shinn said with a grin. "Been keeping busy, I hear."

Athrun groaned.  
>- "Never busier." He said. "Chairwoman Canaver's put me in charge of the negotiations with Orb and the Alliance. I've been in touch with Cagalli in Orb, as well as Presidents Marshall and Rodgers. But the good news is, the treaty's been finalized."<p>

- "Good." Stella said softly, and Shinn nodded.

- "Has it been signed yet?" Shinn asked. Athrun shook his head.

- "Next week, in Orb." he replied. "The Alliance is sending a delegation, as is the PLANTs. I have to go, of course. But I'd like you to come with me as part of the delegation. Both of you."

Shinn looked at Stella, who nodded. Then he turned back to Athrun.  
>- "Sure thing." He replied. "I can get the neighbors to take care of Sam when we're away. When do we leave?"<p>

- "In three days." Athrun replied. "Shuttle takes off from Aprilius, straight to Orb."

- "We'll be there." Shinn promised.

**December 31**  
><strong>Orb Union<strong>  
><strong>Kaguya Spaceport<strong>

The long-range diplomatic shuttle from the PLANTs arrived on schedule, landing on the runway nearest the mass driver and taxiing to a stop next to a similar shuttle, which had arrived the previous day from Paris bearing the delegation from the Earth Alliance.

Waiting for the shuttle's occupants was Representative Athha, flanked as ever by the hulking Colonel Ledonir Kisaka, and Rondo Mina Sahaku as well as Prime Minister Yano.

Also present was the lanky President of the Eurasian Federation, Brennan Marshall, and his opposite number from the Atlantic Federation. The rest of the delegation waited at the quarters provided to them in Orb's main government building.

First to disembark from the shuttle was PLANT Supreme Council Chairwoman Eileen Canaver, closely followed by Diplomatic Committee Chairman Zala, then a number of representatives from the Diplomatic and Legislative Committees.

Behind them followed Shinn and Stella, both in full uniform. Then a young woman in a conservatively elegant dark blue dress, with ash-blonde hair tied into a long, straight plait down her back. Looking at her, Cagalli thought she looked vaguely familiar, but did not comment.

"Chairwoman Canaver, it's an honor to see you." Cagalli said by way of greeting.  
>She then nodded to Athrun. "Chairman Zala."<p>

- "Representative Athha, it is good to see you." Eileen Canaver replied. She then greeted the other diplomats, and the group slowly made its way to a group of waiting limousines.

Chairwoman Canaver rode with Cagalli, Mina, and the two Presidents from the Alliance. A second car held the other politicians, while Athrun rode with the other guests from the PLANTs in a third car.

All of them were led to quarters that had been prepared for them, and were informed that a formal reception was scheduled for that evening during which the treaty would be officially signed.

That evening, all of the members of the delegations from the Atlantic Federation, Eurasian Federation, including several diplomats from the United States of South America, Republic of East Asia, African Community and South African Union gathered in a great reception hall in the Orb government building, along with the delegation from the PLANTs as well as a number of prominent diplomats from Orb, which hosted the gathering.

The Second Treaty of Junius Seven was as historic a document as that signed amidst the ruins of Junius Seven itself at the end of the First Junius War, as the Bloody Valentine Conflict would thereafter be known.

And it was perhaps of greater significance.

Several of its provisions were carried over from the previous treaty, including the Lindemann restrictions on the level of military force allowed to each member nation, as well as the ban on military applications of Mirage Colloid and nuclear technologies, including provisions for the dismantling of any remaining stockpiled nuclear weapons.  
>The Treaty also formally declared illegal the organization Blue Cosmos and its backers, and mandated the excision from the governments of all member nations of all known supporters of the terrorist group – after the model already established by the late President Baum.<br>Finally, the most significant contribution of the treaty was the formal creation of a Coalition that united the governments of Orb, the PLANTs, and the Earth Alliance, in order to ensure continued peaceful relations between the nations and to prevent wars on the scale of the Junius Wars from ever taking place again.  
>The finalized treaty was read aloud, and then each member of the delegations signed it, one by one, to the applause of everyone present.<p>

Then Presidents Marshall and Rodgers stood to speak, and the room fell silent.  
>"With the formation of this Coalition," Marshall began to speak, "The era of the global wars that have hitherto plagued the Earth is ended. President Rodgers and I both believe that lasting peace is possible, as long as reason and a genuine commitment to open dialog prevails over the hateful rhetoric of the past two decades. And in token of this, there is one more announcement which we wish to make."<p>

At that moment, the older Rodgers stepped forward.  
>- "President Marshall and I have been in communication with our colleagues in the Alliance, and have all come to agree on this proposal." He said. "Even as we speak, preparations are under way for the construction, at Lagrange Point Five, of a thirteenth cluster of Colonies, nine in number, to replace those lost in the wars of the past half-decade."<p>

Athrun's expression of blank shock was mirrored in the faces of Shinn, Stella, and nearly every other individual present. Only Cagalli and Chairwoman Canaver, who had known of this in advance – Orb would contribute its own considerable technological expertise to the project, which would be funded jointly by the Alliance and the PLANTs – were not surprised. The idea, of course, had been Marshall's.

But Chairwoman Canaver had insisted that the colonies be grouped in a separate, thirteenth group, rather than added back in to the existing cities of Januarius, Junius, and December - _Pax_ would be its name.

- "On behalf of the Supreme Council and of the people of the PLANTs," Canaver began to say, "I want to thank you all. And I would like to state that we all share the same commitment to ensuring that this peace that we have wrought is not merely for our time, but that it last for all time."

The room rang once again with thunderous applause.

**11:57 PM**

After the reception ended, Shinn and Stella left quietly, and soon stood in a wide park, on a cliff overlooking the sea. The park had been badly damaged in the attack on Orb, and repairs were visibly under way in several areas.

It was the second time Shinn had visited this place, which stood on the ground where his family had been taken from him.  
>On that day, his childhood had ended.<p>

But the somber young man who stood now was not the same angry youth who had stood in the same place all those months ago. And he was no longer alone.

"It's beautiful." Stella said softly as she looked around.

- "Yes, it is." Shinn replied.

He glanced out towards the cracked memorial at the edge of the cliff, and farther along the road, on a similar outcropping he saw something else.  
>He stepped towards it, with Stella behind him.<p>

As they drew near he saw that it was a tomb, made of what looked like white marble. Unlike the memorial or the park, it had survived the battle completely unscathed, or else had already been repaired so expertly that any damage it had taken was invisible.

The marble seemed to glow in the pale light of the moon, and as they drew near and Shinn saw the name etched on the grave, he stopped.

He had brought flowers to lay at the memorial - the closest thing there was to a grave for his family. Instead, he stepped forward and set them down at the foot of the gravestone. Then as he stepped back, he heard footsteps, and he turned around.

After the reception, a restless Athrun had decided to pay a visit to Lacus's grave, which he had not had the time to do the last time he was in Orb. He slipped out of his room and knocked at the door to another room some distance down the hall.

"Come with me." He said to the occupant, who followed a short while later.

The two of them drove to the park, stopping the car at its entrance. They crossed slowly on foot, all too aware of its solemn, sorrowful beauty, and of the devastation the battle had wrought. They saw a memorial and his companion, who carried a great bouquet of flowers, made to step towards it, but Athrun shook his head.

"Athrun." A familiar voice suddenly called his name, and Athrun turned around to face the speaker.

Kira Yamato's face looked drawn, careworn, much as he had the last time Athrun had seen him. But this time he sat immobile in a wheelchair, which Cagalli, who stood behind him, was pushing.  
>The ubiquitous two-tone bird sat on Kira's shoulder, and in his lap was a single, pink Haro, and an enormous bouquet of flowers.<p>

- "Kira. Cagalli." Athrun replied. "It's good to see you both again."

- "Good to see you too, Athrun." Kira replied.

Athrun turned away for a moment, and he contemplated the last time the two best friends had spoken.  
>- "I guess you get to say 'I told you so'." Athrun said. Kira shook his head.<p>

- "No, I don't think so." He said with a wry sort of smile. "Are you…?"

Athrun answered the unspoken question with a nod.  
>- "I haven't had the chance to until now. And I guess it only fits that we should all go."<p>

- "Right." Kira said, and Cagalli nodded.

Cagalli glanced at the somber young woman who stood behind Athrun, but said nothing.  
>It was the same young woman who had been with the delegation that arrived from the PLANTs. Again as she looked at the sad young face, she was struck by a nagging sense of familiarity, but the exact reason eluded her. She too carried a large bouquet of flowers.<p>

Athrun saw her looking.  
>- "This is Meer Campbell." Athrun simply said. "She came down with us from the PLANTs."<p>

- "It's a pleasure to meet you." Cagalli replied, and Kira smiled.

- "Thank you." Meer replied softly, without looking at either of them.

Kira started at the sound of her voice. Cagalli gaped._ 'It couldn't be…'_ She thought, and turned towards Athrun.

But Athrun's attention as the group bypassed the weathered memorial and exited the far end of the park was fixed on the white marble tomb on its promontory overlooking the sea.  
>Cagalli looked over at the grave, and she saw as Athrun had that there were two people already there.<p>

From a distance neither Athrun nor Cagalli could not tell who they were. But as they neared and Athrun saw the young woman's short, golden hair, he knew.  
>Then the young man, who had been kneeling in front of the grave, stood and turned towards them, and Athrun found himself facing Shinn.<p>

Shinn saw Athrun, Cagalli, and a blonde woman he did not recognize. But his attention was on the man in the wheelchair, whom he remembered having met once before. Kira Yamato, his name had been.  
>Shinn, thinking back to conversations he had with Athrun, now realized the truth of who he was.<p>

Kira handed the flowers to Cagalli with a sad expression on his face, and Shinn realized that he was crippled. He felt a pang of guilt, realizing that it was he who had done that to him.  
>Cagalli stepped towards the grave and set the flowers down, next to those laid by Shinn.<p>

Then behind her Meer walked up and laid the flowers that she carried in front of the grave too, and Cagalli saw with some surprise that tears rimmed her bright blue eyes.  
>She stepped back and stood beside Athrun, while Cagalli returned to stand next to her twin brother.<p>

Shinn was looking straight at the pair, and for a moment Athrun thought he was looking at Cagalli, and wondered what he would say.  
>Then Kira spoke.<br>"A lot of things have happened since the last time we met." He said, and to Athrun's surprise, Shinn nodded. And he looked back towards the damaged park, and the small cenotaph.

- "You know, I've always hated this place. But even so, I couldn't ever forget it." He said. "And now..."

He turned back to face Kira and Cagalli, looking first at her, then him.  
>"I'm so sorry." He said, and felt tears flowing down his face.<p>

Kira shook his head, with a pained sort of expression.  
>"Do you remember what you said last time?" He asked, and Shinn nodded.<br>Kira then raised his hand and held it out.  
>"Well, no matter how bad things get," Kira said, "even if there are those who would wipe them out - they'll always grow again. We'll make sure of it."<p>

And at that moment, Shinn knew that Kira held him blameless, which made him feel even worse about what he had done, for a moment. He stepped forward, and he shook the older man's hand.

- "Now you know." Athrun said, from behind them. "The kind of battle that we fight."  
>And he thought about how much he had seen Shinn change since they had met, almost a year earlier.<p>

- "Yeah." Shinn replied. It was the same as the Second Battle of Daedalus. Now, Shinn understood.

- "My fighting days are over." Kira said, and there was no bitterness in his tone, as he turned to face the grave of his dear Lacus. "But what we have accomplished - this peace that we've been able to achieve...I think this is what she would have wanted."

- "And she would have been glad to know that there are those who will fight to protect it." Cagalli added. "Like Athrun, and me."

- "What about you?" Kira asked Shinn. "Will you fight with us?"

There was a short pause. Then Shinn nodded.  
>"Yes." He said firmly.<p>

- "Thank you." Kira replied.  
>The group fell silent, and Shinn looked out past the edge of the cliff at the sea.<br>He sighed, and as he contemplated the words he had heard, felt as if a great weight were lifted from his shoulders.

Saying good-bye to the assembled group, he turned to leave, walking back towards the park.  
>Stella followed, and as they walked out of the park, he left behind the burden of grief and guilt he had borne since that fateful day, a burden that had gotten only heavier in the past year.<p>

And as he looked to Stella, walking by his side, he knew that a part of his life was over. He glanced at his watch, and saw that it was just past midnight.

The year Cosmic Era Seventy-Five had ended. A new year had begun.  
>And it was up to them now to build a new life, in a new era…<p>

**THE END**


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